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.

 

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