Twickenham 12- Thurrock 10

This match between two mid table sides was always going to be close, and that the game proved to be.

Twickenham kicked off and with only 3 minutes gone were awarded a penalty which John Bradford, playing his first game at stand off duly slotted over. Within two minutes after another Thurrock offside offence he was given a further opportunity to increase the score by another 3 points which he took. The T’s forwards exerted their usual pressure on the opposition pack and it told. With Thurrock becoming increasingly frustrated their number 6 was sin binned for a high tackle to be followed 3 minutes later by their outside centre, for not rolling away. Twickenham took the 3 points from the penalty but were then not able to press home their advantage in numbers by adding any more scores before the half time whistle, and in fact conceded a penalty after infringing due to a moment of indecision close to their line, during a rare Thurrock attack.

The second half started much like the first with another early penalty to Twickenham. This seemed to galvanise Thurrock who then began to put moves together and much of the rest of the game was played in the T’s half with only brief moments of Twickenham attacking, most notably Ronnie Howden’s break from his own 22, only to be brought down 10 metres short of the Thurrock line.

With just 10 minutes left Chris Tytherleigh was adjudge to have come in from the side and was harshly yellow carded and from the subsequent penalty, a scrum was taken and Thurrock scored the only try of the game which they converted.

The final drama was played out in injury time when Ts conceded a penalty just off centre of the posts and about 35 metres out which Thurrock needed for a one point win. Thankfully for Twickenham the pressure on the kicker was too much and he missed, leaving Twickenham the victors.

This was again a game where the Twickenham forwards and stout defending kept the Ts in the game, but there is a spark missing somewhere as possession was not turned into points by the backs, and a better opposition may well expose them to a greater extent.

Team: R.Botha, C.Tytherleigh, M.Nicholson, P.Goff, J. Davis, C.I’anson, R.Kirby, J.Pace, A.Rogers, J.Bradford, J.Foley, J.Clark, R.Whitam, (J.Peters, 60mins.) T.Howden, M.Wadden.