SSE NATIONAL 3 (LSE) BARNES 41 v 15 THURROCK
Thurrock’s dismal run of form continued at league leaders Barnes, however it was a much better performance than the score suggests. Thurrock played over 50 minutes with only 14 men, two yellow card offences was followed by a second yellow for Ben Thomas meaning technically he was sent off and Thurrock were down to by a man.
Markus Burcham opened the scoring for Thurrock with a well executed try, converted by Frankie Neale, however the home side bounced back to level the scores, but Neale was again on target with a penalty to put Thurrock back in front. A lead that Thurrock held into the last 5 minutes of the half, when finally conceding a converted try when down to 14 men, and Barnes increased their lead with a penalty right on half time for a flattering 17-10 lead.
Despite valiant effort from Thurrock the extra man exposed Thurrock and harshly conceded 3 converted tries and a penalty, but they continued to play their part and some harsh decisions went against them an adjudged forward pass was called by the referee has Nat Farrell would have scored in the corner, and eventually their tenacity paid off after great work from Mike Stanley the ball was quickly moved for Ben Timson to score wide out.
It was a shame that Thurrock had nothing to show for their gutsy performance but can gain some much needed confidence from this performance.
TEAM: Neale, Farrell, Burcham, Stanley, Porter, Rudgely, Cook, North,Durrance, Bevans-Roysto, Ben Thomas, Loka, Timson, Flavin, Retigan
Rep; Rate, Sullivan, Michael Thomas
This Saturday Thurrock welcomes TONBRIDGE JUDDIANS to OAKFIELD the game will kick off at 3.00PM
