Thurrock T-Birds 44 v 0 Rosslyn Park
Second on points difference after 2 games, the T-birds travelled to Roehampton Vale and one of the big names in Ladies’ Rugby, Rosslyn Park Slingbacks.
With a new look front row, this very young T-birds side arrived expecting the usual tough encounter.
Playing into a stiff breeze, the Ts received the kick and drove across halfway into Rosslyn Park territory, openside Francesca Jordan picked up at the back of a ruck and scampered through a gaping hole in the defence and despite a desperate chase back, she was in under the posts in less than 3 minutes. 0-5.
Rosslyn then collected the restart and using 2 penalties to kick for position, advanced slowly into Thurrock territory and then camped in T’s 22 with only desperate scramble defence keeping them from crossing the tryline. Eventually T’s turned over the ball and started their own drive, pushing Rosslyn Park back into their own half.
Playing with real enterprise, the backs received quick ball from good rucking and found Dannie Harriss in space on the right wing. Park had no answer to her pace and she was over the line with little resistance. 16 minutes, 0-10.
Rosslyn Park now looked shell shocked and appeared to lose concentration and organisation for a few minutes and that was enough for Dannie Harris to receive the ball from a quick tap penalty and claim her second down the right wing. 22 minutes 0-15.
Rosslyn Park really dug in now, playing for pride on their home ground and aided by a series of penalties again applied real pressure on the T’s defence, with Ts kicking to relieve the pressure whenever they managed to win the ball.
As half time approached, T’s pack began to show real dominance and the Rosslyn scrum began to show signs of crumbling under the pressure. Running a good move from Outside Centre, Charlene West popped through a hole in the Park defence and scored with the last move of the half. 41 minutes, 0-20.
Ts came out for the second half charged up and expecting Park to put in a big 20 minutes but for a short while heads dropped and holes appeared all over the park defence and tries from Charlotte Micaleff and Anitra Thomas and a conversion from Amy Bird pushed the score to 32-0 in 52 minutes.
T’s now used the bench and Park stiffened their resolve and the remainder of the game was far more even, however Ts still managed 2 more scores, one from Vice Captain Tammy Nichols and again from Dannie Harris claiming her hat trick.
Final score was 0-44, the bonus point putting Ts clear at the top of Championship SE 2.
Players of the match were Dannie “hat trick” Harris and Tammy Nichols.
Next outing will be November 8th when both T-birds first and second teams run out together for the first time. The firsts hosting second in the table Harlequins Ladies and the seconds hosting Southwold. Both aiming for 2.30 kick off.
