Determined defence and the magic boot of captain James Clark salvaged a point for Twickenham from this difficult away encounter in London 2 North.

For the second week in a row T’s were involved in a match where the lead changed hands no less than five times. They went behind when following strong forward pressure Thurrock went over in the corner, but the conversion was missed.

Thus T’s took the lead when they converted their try, which came ten minutes later. This was the result of strong scrummaging and a pick-up from No.8 Nathan Dawes, to go over close to the posts and a simple conversion for Clark.

Thurrock took the lead again with a penalty and second unconverted try, but T’s were back on top by the interval when a move from insider their own half started by centre Bruce Guyett, released winger Carl Rendle on a run which covered most of the length of the pitch before he was brought down by a great last ditch tackle. Scrumhalf Andy Rogers was on hand to latch on to the loose ball to make the line and Clark added the kick for a 14-13 turnaround.

In the second half the Thurrock pack became dominant and set up countless rolling mauls which T’s had a lot of difficulty in stopping. One such lead to a converted try and a further penalty had the home side feeling comfortable at 20-14.

However they reckoned without the boot of Clark who landed two long-range penalties to level the scores.

Thurrock threw everything they had into attack, but their kicker missed three shots at goal and T’s defence proved just too strong.

A somewhat fortunate point for T’s but deserved by the team effort in defence. Next week they travel to Christ’s Hospital at Horsham where they will play Old Blues in the Powergen Shield

Twickenham scorers; Tries Nathan Dawes, Carl Rendle; Conversions James Clark(2); Penalties Clark (2).