Thurrock 30 TABARD 17 – London
2 North
Tabard
failed to make
the most of a good first half against
Thurrock on Saturday and, at one stage down to fourteen men, they just
could not keep the home side out in the second half and ended
up with a defeat by 30 points to 17.
Tabard came out the blocks
the fastest and were all over Thurrock
to start with but had to wait until the sixth
minute to open the scoring when
centre Ed Orchard went over following a pick up at the base of the scrum by
number 8, Scott Stoba. Stand off Richard Woodard converted to put Tabard seven
points ahead. This rallied Thurrock a little
and they fought back to eventually score when Hooker Keefe touched
down after a line out drive. This then
led to Tabards best period of the game when they came close to
scoring several times, including
a solo break by scrum half Tom Smith from
inside the Tabard half which took him
to a metre away, a fine run by Stoba also
brought him tantalisingly close and there could have been a forwards try but
Thurrock pulled the drive down and
Tabard failed to make the most of the penalty.
Just on half time Thurrock’s scrum half converted a penalty and Tabard
turned round 8 points to
7 down, completely against
the run of play.
Thurrock started
the second half the better and a swift passing movement brought their wing
Wakefield a try. Tabard replied with a
penalty by Jack Reilly to bring Tabard back to
within five points. Then Tabard
had a bad period. With all three
replacements already on the field Tabards prop Steve Wilkinson went off with a damaged
kneecap. Thus with Tabard having only fourteen men Thurrock took advantage and
finally outflanked the Tabard defence after some good handling to score a try
when centre Worster went over in the corner.
Tabard came
back again with a fine try from Smith.
This time stand off Woodard did an upfield kick and chase before
Tabard re-cycled the ball and Smith saw his chance and a fine run saw him over
the line for Reilly to convert. This brought Tabard to within
three points of Thurrock and, with Wilkinson bravely back on the pitch
having his knee heavily strapped, it looked like Tabard might just do it. However, it was not to be and Thurrock
picked up two very late tries, one from centre Gaye and the other from
flanker Walton and Tabard had to accept defeat by 30 points to 17.
Team: Karstel, Ashcroft
(Ward 35m), Reilly, Orchard, Hopcroft, Woodard, Smith, Wilkinson, Gates (Collison 40m), Baker, Crocker, Milne, Stoba
and De Vries (Montague 8m).