Thurrock's Under 14s travelled to Wanstead on Sunday morning having defeated Canvey Island last time out.

Our young team are notorious for their slow starts to games and this was no different. With Wanstead being short of numbers, Logan & Nifemi put on the Blue and White Jersey of our hosts. Wanstead started off strongly in the forwards and had Ts on the back foot at the breakdown. Some strong defence from our boys kept them at bay. Unfortunately, T's captain, Albert suffered a head injury in one of these collisions and had to come off early. Soon after Albert's knock, Nifemi was charging through to score for Wanstead. They added the conversion to make the score 7-0.

T's looked a little shellshocked and looked to hit back early. Will took the restart, which was gathered well by the Wanstead centre. He managed to burst through a couple of tackles before just evading a last ditched tackle by Aston to score a fine try in the corner. The touchline conversion was missed taking the score to 12-0.

Our boys started to get regroup and after some powerful running from Harvey, Max & Sonny, we were getting some good field position. Ben was having another good game at Scrumhalf and his quick service was giving the backs licence to play some free flowing rugby. Connor's strong running was causing all sorts of problems for the Wanstead defence as he linked up well with his centre partner, George. Charlie and Oliver on the wings were both having strong games and making lots of inroads with their direct running while Aston's tackling was once again, outstanding.

The forwards started to dominate with Joe H & Daniel starting to use their power and Tyler making all his tackles as well as turning over the Wanstead ball in the rucks. Jacob's work at the breakdown was once again strong as he secured plenty of ball from T's as well as winning all of his scrums. Will's kicking was putting the team into good positions on the field and from one such kick to the corner, T's set up one of their lineout moves. A great throw from Max found Harvey who got the ball to Joe P. Joe's pace and power saw him smash through the Wanstead defence to score T's first try of the day out wide. Will was unlucky with the conversion to make the score 12-5 at the break.

The boys had a chat at half time as they looked to start the 2nd period strongly with Joe H and Daniel swapping sides with Logan & Nifemi.

Rio came into the fray and his work rate at the breakdown was damaging the Wanstead forward pack. He linked well with Harvey on the right hand side before powering over to score for T's. Will was unlucky once again with the conversion, this time smashing back off the post.

Lewis added another level of pace to T's defence as he chased everything and put pressure on the Wanstead players every time they had the ball.

Aniq and Riley were both playing their first ever games for Thurrock and they both did well. Aniq was lively on the wing as he made some good runs and Riley was strong in his tackling and a nuisance for the Wanstead attack.

One run from Aniq gave T's some great territory, before the ball found its way to Thomas, he smashed his way through a couple of tackled to score under the posts giving Will the easy kick to put T's in the lead for the first time. 12-17.

The 2nd half saw the best side of our young men as they continued to try things in attack and were ruthless in defence, not giving the Wanstead players any space or time. Logan was having another good game at Flanker and was solid under a couple of the restarts before setting off our attack. The line outs were functioning really well and once again, led to another T's try. Nifemi, having already scored for Wanstead earlier in the game, ran in a great try from about 30 meters, gliding past a few Wanstead players to score his first ever Thurrock try. Will once again added the conversion. 12-24.

T's next try came straight from the restart, another great take from Logan saw him feed the ball to Harvey who dummied and drove down the right hand touchline and sprinted away from the covering defence to score his first try of the season. 12-29.

Wanstead had a strong phase towards the end of the game as they managed to string some good possession together and threatened T's try line. As it looked certain for them to score, some magnificent defence from Max saw him rip the ball and run the ball out from deep. This set up a thrilling finish. T's continued to work their way up the field, sensing another try. With the last play called as T's had a scrum in the Wanstead half, a great pass from Will put Thomas into a gap, he powered through on a great line and ran in another scintillating try. Max added to conversion to bring and end to the scoring and the game.

After a barnstorming performance, the Man of the Match award was given to Nifemi.

Another solid performance from this amazing team who seem to be going from strength to strength each week.

Next week will see our boys host Brentwood in the Essex Waterfall Cup. Kick off is at 11am.