MERCEDES FOY, skipper of the Thurrock T-Birds has been selected to represent England as they tour the USA this summer. Mercedes has been a stalwart of the T-Birds for many years. Her enthusiasm is met by her ability and so it is no surprise that the William Edwards PE teacher has been picked for her country.
THURROCK rugby clubs under 16 squad gained promotion after a 26-7 victory against Saffron Walden. It has been quite a roller coaster season for the team, who have not been afraid to pit themselves against tougher opposition in order to raise their game.
A TAG Rugby league at Thurrock rugby club is being organised every Tuesday for 6 weeks consecutively from May 21st – Tuesday 25th June inclusive. This is to engage as many players – New, Old, Male, Female, Experts, Beginners to come up to the club in Blackshots each and every TUESDAY for six weeks for a great atmosphere, good fun and enjoyable rugby.
THE THURROCK T-Birds have a vital match this Sunday (April 28th). Their match against Aylesford is for premiership survival. Win and they remain in the premiership for another two years. Lose and it is back to the regional divisions.
IN this bottom of the table clash, going down 22-24 nailed Thurrock T-Birds to the foot of the Premiership and will send them into a playoff with one last chance to retain their top flight status, but they fought every inch of the way. In a fascinating and nail biting performance the T-Birds espoused their key mantra of Heart, Passion and Belief to came from behind three times and push Darlington Mowden Park Sharks right to the wire. In a men’s Premiership game the result would have been different, the cameras would have seen the key forward pass in the act of scoring that settled the game, but the T-Birds have to take the responsibility of failing to finish three easy chances that would have made a referee’s mistake irrelevant.
THURROCK welcomed promotion chasing Bishop Stortford with a renewed confidence following last week’s comeback victory and knowing their National league position is safe and could now play without any inhabitations. The visitors started the game strongly and were rewarded after just 5 minutes winger Jono Child scored a try wide out in the corner.
YET another game that the T-Birds could and perhaps should have won, but they will have to be satisfied with a losing bonus point and take comfort that 5-12 to Wasps was a much better score line than 49-5 in the reverse fixture earlier in the Season. In what is becoming a depressingly familiar storyline, Thurrock conceded 2 soft scores at crucial moments and spent the rest of the game playing catch up.
THE WINTER weather descended on Oakfield on Saturday and played a major part in the result although Thurrock can only take part of the blame for a rather lacklustre first half performance. The playing surface already wet was made worse by the snow falling during the game. The visitors set there stool out early in the game keeping the ball close to hand for long periods of play hardly moving the ball outside the fly half, but there hardworking forwards were rewarded with three tries only one of which was converted. However Thurrock did keep on the score sheet thanks to the reliable boot of Frankie Neale who landed a penalty.
THURROCK took a large contingent of supporters over to Guernsey at the weekend – but the team failed to spark on the pitch – losing 39-19. There was nearly no rugby at all when the referee’s plane was turned back. Luckily a substitute was found on the island – but, unluckily for T’s, one of the borough’s props was on the affected flight.
ON a crisp fresh Saturday inform Pegasus travelled the few miles to play the local derby against Stanford. These games are always a tense and tight affair but earlier in the season Pegasus had taught the Stanford team a lesson in how to play rugby and that still hurt so the Stanford players were ready to show the supporters what they were made of.
Thurrock started off so well, with tries from James Flavin and Nathan Farrell both duly converted by Frankie Neale who also added a penalty for a 17-0 lead. With this start it looked at last that the effort and commitment shown in the last couple of weeks it started to pay dividends, but the visitors edged into the match with a converted try and a penalty to reduce the defecit to 7 until Neale again added a further penalty right on the stroke of half time for the home side to lead 20-10
CORRINGHAM’S Emily Scott came close to scoring for England in the RBS Womens Six Nations clash with France on Saturday.The Thurrock Ladies star was just millimetres away from touching down but she was tackled just before the line.
STANFORD Ladies rugby team are looking for new players to join them. They are a friendly group of girls ranging from ages 18 to 40 something and would love to welcome you to support Stanford.
Losing Markus Burcham for 10 minutes for the penalty offence that led to the last minute penalty made little difference as Neale added a penalty, then a further penalty when Thurrock were back to 15 players, at this point the game could have gone either way.
STANFORD expected an aggressive game and were not disappointed, despite being bottom of the league Steelers game to the rec intent on winning.
After only 9 minutes Steelers found themselves for the first time in the Stanford half and awarded a penalty more or less directly in front. How the points were not converted is a mystery as the ball was kick straight across the front of the posts.
THURROCK ladies stars Mercedes Foy, Francesca Jordan and Claire Phelps represented London & South-East this weekend beating the south west 32-17 away in Somerset. Thurrock’s 2nd string continued their impressive unbeaten record with an empathic away win at Bletchley
RUGBY can sometimes be a very cruel game, and when you concede a try in the closing moments of normal time for the second time this season it really hurts, Thurrock led league leaders Dorking for the whole of the match until it mattered when Dorking Fly half Pimlow beat two men and a missed tackle to score in the corner to take the lead for the first time in the match, the conversion was short, so was the injury time which gave the visitors no chance to try and win the game.
The talk during the week was how annoyed the Stanford players had been when they lost to Brightlingsea earlier in the season and this was going to be their motivation for the game. However Brightlingsea started strong and on the first minute were awarded a penalty when Stanford was caught not releasing the ball after contact. The kick went wide and Stanford was let off. Three minutes later Brightlingsea had another attempt at the posts when Stanford was pinged for coming in at the side of a ruck. Once again Brightlingsea was off the mark.
THURROCK entertained lowly Staines in front of their VP’s and came away with a very workmanlike win. Losing Frankie Neale and James Kellard before kick off with illness and injury meant a quick reshuffle to the side but the changes made little difference to the excellent start. Jake Barrand was one of those drafted in late and was first on the scoreboard wide out; he took over the kicking duties but was short with his first attempt as the home side were 5-0 ahead within 5 minutes.
THURROCK ladies 2nd string played Stanford-le-Hope ladies and hoped to keep their impressive unbeaten run going. Winger Georgie Tricker was again the star performer scoring 5 tries and 7 conversions for a personal haul of 39 points!
THIS weekend saw three Thurrock T-Birds make the London & South East (LSE) rugby divisional squad. Mercedes Foy, Francesca Jordan and Claire Phelps all impressed the selectors!
THE weather enforced a two week break and Thurrock’s chance to get back to winning ways following their frustration of the last minute defeat early in January. Thurrock unlucky losers at Hertford early in the season started much the brighter and were playing most of the offensive rugby, but failed to find a way through mainly due to resolute defence and some unforced errors. But it was the visitors who took the lead against the run of play when full back Macpherson-Smith kicked a penalty with the advantage of a very strong wind behind his back. Hertford gained some confidence from this probably had one of their better spells of the match but were unable to add to their solitary penalty.
STANFORD took a very close win at home earlier in the season, however with a number of 1st team players unavailable, debuts were given to three up and coming youngsters for the return match. Normally a meeting between the two sides has it all, a close competitive game, good rugby, controversy and a nail biting finish, this game was not going to disappoint. This may not have been the best game to offer a first team debut to Jared Gounden, Mark O’Connell and Michael Kite but sometimes a baptism of fire is the best way to become associated with the step up and the three gave an outstanding performance. From the off Stanford were out of the blocks fast and aggressive, they knew the Bakers pack are a formidable foe so didn’t want to stand toe to toe with them so they kept the ball flowing with good link play they pushed the Bakers side back. After just 6 minutes Stanford had the first chance at points with a penalty wide out.
ON a bitterly cold day with a stiff Northerly breeze freezing the fingers, the T-Birds resumed their Premiership campaign by welcoming Bristol for their first ever visit to Oakfield. In this hard fought encounter, T’s picked up their first ever Premier League point in a narrow loss, but were left feeling that this could and perhaps should have been their first win.
