Woodford 24 Thurrock 12

Woodford 24 – Thurrock 12

24th March 2007

Returning Talisman Dwight Steers Woodford to Victory

A powerful performance from Woodford sees the Highams men claw their way further from the relegation zone. Woodford started brightly and were dominating Thurrock’s heavier pack allowing Ronnie Cobble to make his trademark breaks from the back of the scrum. Thurrock were on the rack and were forced into conceding penalties – a catch and drive from the lineout saw Joe Green dot down in the corner. The conversion was missed but that passage of play where the Thurrock pack were taken apart proved to be the tale of match.

From the kick off Woodford attacked again but a turnover allowed Thurrock fly half Dave Gilmore to clear his lines. Unfortunately for Woodford the bounce of the ball fell straight into the arms of Thurrock’s chasing winger who accepted the invitation with glee to score under the posts. The conversion was added to leave Woodford shell shocked to be behind 5-7.

Despite Woodford’s dominance in the set piece, Thurrock began to come back into the game by using their powerful centres and wingers through the midfield and with Gilmore using the wind advantage to control the game with his boot, Woodford were beginning to get pegged back in their own half. A series of mauls close to the Woodford line were contained by Woodford’s pack and a Thurrock indiscretion allowed the Highams side to clear. When Woodford were presented with lineout ten metres from the Thurrock line, Jamie Phillipson powered his was over and with Dwight converting Woodford were approaching the half 12-7 in front. Niall Moody stepped up to convert a late Thurrock penalty to give the Woods a 15-7 half time advantage.

The second half was a see-saw battle with both sides making errors when it seemed a score was there for the taking. Importantly, Thurrock fly-half Gilmore seemed to pick up an injury early in the second half, taking away his powerful boot which allowed Woodford to crank up the pressure on Thurrock and another penalty was knocked over by Dwight. The Highams men then had hooker Froud sin binned with 25 minutes to go and Thurrock took advantage to score out wide from a catch and drive of their own. Thurrock were fighting back, but Woodford were not to be denied as Dwight accurately converted two more penalties to close out the game for Woodford.

Woodford from 1 to 15

S Eleftheriou, G Froud, E Kaiser, B Williams, E Gooday, J Phillipson, J Green (Rod Newbury 70), Ron Cobble, N Williams, J Dwight (C), V Koetzer, N Moody, W Morley, T Jolly, R Luggeri Subs Mullins (front row replacement 55-65), Ben Bevan (Blood Bin replacement 38-45 and 55-65)