Horsham easily beaten by Thurrock

LONDON 1 SOUTH
Saturday 1st February 2020
Horsham 17-46 Thurrock
Report by Richard Ordidge

Horsham’s six match winning run came to an abrupt end with a heavy 46-17 home defeat against Thurrock. There was to be no repeat of the heroics when the Green and Whites came away from their trip to Essex in October with a dramatic last minute win. Instead after a bright start Horsham turned out their flattest and most porous defensive performance of the season to date conceding eight tries in the process against a strong Thurrock side belying their lowly league position who in turn showed the Green and Whites a watertight defence to shut Horsham out for the middle sixty minutes of the game.

Horsham flew out of the blocks to cross the line in the 2nd minute after a great set of play and multiple phases saw young 18 year old Oli Chennell use his strength to score his first try for the 1st XV out wide.

This was to be the last time Horsham troubled the scoreboard until the 65th minute as Thurrock scored eight tries without reply with a hat-trick of tries from winger Dan Stone, as well as scores from Kye Holloway, Joss Nunn, Dan Ulph, Dan Carey and Tani Loka. There were also two conversions from Dylan Fearon and one from Henry Bird.

With the game entering the final stages Horsham finished strongly with a couple of consolation tries from Declan Nwachukwu, the first of which came after a nice delay by Jake Fisher to put Ian Paku into space, and the second after a good interchange of passes with Ciaran Preston.

Horsham head coach Nick Stocker said after the game: “A thoroughly disappointing performance from the lads today who came up against a committed Thurrock team who displayed a hunger for the ball throughout. Our discipline in the first half allowed Thurrock to gain field position and with a steady source of possession at set piece they found space against our ineffective tackling and opened up an unassailable lead.

Matters weren’t helped by three particularly dubious try decisions by the official in a ten-minute spell immediately after half time. Whilst this in no way detracts from Thurrock’s performance, or indeed excuses our own, it does alter the complexion of the game in the mind of the players who are working hard to chase the game.

On the bright side, the Thurrock management and players were magnanimous in victory and contributing fully to an enjoyable post-match beer in the clubhouse where Ian Paku was nominated as man of the match by Thurrock. For a young lad playing colts rugby last season and recently getting his first team debut, it marks a real step on the development of this young open side.

The weeks break will be much needed to fine tune some of the deficiencies exposed by Thurrock, with the next fixture on the 15th February a tough away game at Camberley for both 1st team and Lions.

Before that, the Lions play Hove away in the Bob Rogers cup looking to defend the cup we hold.”

Horsham: Squire; Nwachukwu, Burchfield, Ordidge, Paterson; Chennell, Linfield (Fisher); Bell N, Fairs (Preston), Cass (Barber); Osgood, Goward; Redmayne, Paku, Smith J