Third XV (Acorns)
Match Reports 2009/10
Latest games first:
Sat April 10th 2010: Scroll down for photos
of the game
BL League Plate
Thurrock
3rds 10
Romford
14
Thurrock
’s young development side containing 5 colts put on an excellent performance
on Saturday against a stronger than expected Romford side in the BL plate
final. This Romford side bore no
resemblance to the side the 3s had put 80 points on four weeks ago.
A strong wind from one end was to prove the deciding factor in this game, and
Thurrock
, playing with the wind, dominated possession resulting in a Tom
Worsfold penalty when Romford were penalised for coming in at the side of
the ruck. Further
Thurrock
pressure, especially some hard yard carries from T's forwards Jack
Ribbons, Dan Joyce, John Cambridge
and Rob Jarvis saw an opportunity for Jimmy
Ray to dive over for a well earned score, which was converted by Tom Worsfold.
Thurrock
squandered further chances to score despite some fine forward play with
excellent support play from James
Pearce and Luke Clements, who dominated the lineout all day.
At half time Thurrock’s 10-0 lead was probably a score short given
the wind they were now playing against, and anytime Romford gained possession
they pinned
Thurrock
back into their 22 with long range kicks.
A tactical half time change by 3's manager, and Director of Rugby Dave
Pavitt saw bringing on the powerful running Scott
Williams for the lighter, but nevertheless excellent James
Pearce. Two hard won converted
tries, despite some fine Thurrock defence, gave Romford a 14-10 lead and as
time ran out Thurrock made a last gasp effort to regain the lead.
Key injuries to veteran fullback Martin
Adcock and centre Sean Cotter
proved a blow to
Thurrock
and even some fine runs by James
Whitfield and Jack Plom that
tested the Romford defence, could not break through.
The whistle went and
Thurrock
had run out of time.
In hindsight, Thurrock didn’t use their talented back line as much as they
should have done, somewhat wasting the talents of
Blaine
Kidd, Pash Pehlivan and Mike Norley.
Thurrock
didn’t however let the loss effect their end of season celebrations, and a
good time was had by all in the clubhouse in the evening, with Tom Worsfold winning the players’ player of the year award.

Sat Mar 6th 2010: Scroll down for photos
of the game
Thurrock
3rd XV
70
Romford 3rd
XV 0
Thurrock
’s young development side put on the style at a sunny but very chilly
Oakfield on Saturday. The 3rd XV's
last league game of the season provided a try fest.
A solid forwards performance with some especially powerful runs by No8 Scott
Williams provided a solid platform for some scintillating handling from
the young backline led by Wayne
Tredwell. Two hat-tricks by Scott Williams and James
Whitfield were complemented by tries from Mike Norley, Blaine Kidd, a brace by Rhys Neil and debutante Reece
Millar also got on the score sheet with a huge crowd pleasing swan dive
under the posts.
The 3rd XV can be very proud of their season’s work. After only winning one
game last season, their league record of won 9 lost 9 is a huge improvement
and bodes well for next season.
The BL merit semi finals are in a fortnight and on current form the thirds can
be confident of a good chance of making the finals on the 10th April at
Oakfield.

Tom Worsfold with a successful
kick
Sean Cotter leads the way

Sat Feb 20th 2010:
Billericay 2nd XV
19
Thurrock 3rd XV
17
Thurrock
went to a very sloppy Billericay on Saturday with five Under 19s Colts and two
17 year olds and enjoyed a good contest against Billericay's 2nd string.
Playing down the hill first half
Thurrock
should have made more of their opportunities and should have scored 3 tries,
but ended up only converting one of them after 15 minutes. This unconverted
try gave
Thurrock
a 5-0 lead with 10 minutes to go in the half when a good kick by the
Billericay outside half provided a scoring opportunity which their big pack
took well. This left the half time score 7-5 to the home side and
Thurrock
's young side had a literal hill to climb to get back into the game.
Things looked ominous when after 10 minutes of the second period Billericay
had scored a further two tries , one converted to give them a 19-5 lead and
the challenge of the slope and a dominant Billericay scrum looked like it
might be too much for Thurrock's young development side to handle. However the
Thurrock
lads dug deep and showed huge character, scoring a well worked try in the
corner with some lovely handling from the backline,
especially Sean Cotter and Blaine Kidd.
Further pressure and some sterling work up front by two of the senior
players in the side, Dalbir Grewel
and Andy Brodie, forced Billericay
onto the back foot.
In the last 10 minutes
Thurrock
were running everything from all areas of the park and eventually broke
through the home sides defence to score under the posts. This try was
converted, and
Thurrock
were unlucky not to steal the game from under the noses of the home side as
they just ran out of time.
A really good contest, that was well refereed and a particular mention should
be made to Tom Worsfold, Pash Pehlivan
and James Whitfield for excellent performances.
© 2006
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