THE ENFORCED lay off last week seemed to affect Thurrock more than the visitors, who belied their lowly position and looked much the more likely in the early stages. In fact for the opening quarter Thurrock could not get out of their half, but for some good defence they may have found themselves further behind than the 6-0 they was, with Letchworth kicking two penalties from 4 attempts during this prolonged period.
Thurrock finally got some phases of play together and in almost their first attack No8 Bradleigh Rettigan used his pace to score close to the posts, Mark Brandon added the conversion for Thurrock to put them in lead, a lead they tried to extend for the remainder of the half they were rewarded when Nat Farrell beat the cover defence to score in the corner.
Thurrock looked as if they would add a further just minutes from the break with Dave Stevens prominent making his first appearance since breaking his arm on the opening day in September, as a huge overlap appeared but the referee brought back play as two players were having handbags and both got the deserved yellow card and 10 minutes in the bin.
It looked plain sailing for the home when Ian Rudgely side stepped through the defence just wide of the posts, with Brandon adding the extra’s to lead 19-6. But how wrong can one be, a moment of luck as with another overlap looming and a try at Thurrock mercy, the Letchworth winger intercepted a scoring pass to sprint full 75 metres to score, with the conversion added they were right back in the game, even more so when a from a 5 metre line out a good catch and drive see them score in the corner to come within one point, but remained that way as the conversion was missed.
Thurrock now needed to score to and with just five minutes remaining Ian Rudgely scored his second try, after Thurrock won the ball against the head and Brandon gave a well timed pass for him to score in the corner. Thurrock still had four minutes remaining Thurrock now had to keep out a very lively visitors back line that looked dangerous every time they had the ball, but Thurrock’s defence held firm and an extra bonus point victory achieved by scoring 4 tries. Letchworth for their endeavours picked a point for being less than 7 points in defeat.
TEAM: Worster, Farrell, Gorman, (Stanley 62), Madden, Porter, Rudgely, Brandon (Bedding 71m), North, Stevens, Woodward, Banks, Loka (Scott 47m), Crowhurst, Timson, Rettigan
This week Thurrock travel to league leaders WESTCLIFF , kick off will be 2.00pm
