Thurrock 17, Upminster 57[.N]

ON Sunday morning, 30 May at Oakfield, Thurrock and Upminster U15s served up a feast of great rugby.

At this age, Upminster are a well drilled side who swing the ball wide to devastating effect. Tees u15 knew that they had a real battle on their hands with one of Essex's finest u15 teams but you have to test yourself against the best.

Tees matched up well with Upminster in the first half and whilst they trailed 10 -19 at the turnaround, there was nothing in it. Two fine tries were had for Thurrock with Albie Thomas and Mitchell Lilley at the end of some seriously good moves, to score.

In the third quarter, Upminster upped the pace, moved the ball quickly through the hands and took the game out of reach, scoring and converting four tries without response, 47-10.

Whilst the final quarter started in a similar vein, with Upminster stretching the lead to 57-10, there is great fight in these Thurrock u15 lads. Tees kept running their penalties at the Upminster line for Martorana to finally go over, ably pushed along by Healy and Crawford, 17-57 being the final score.

Notable performances for Thurrock on the day were from Wilsher and Holding who prove that you do not have to be the biggest, the tallest or the broadest to make a great rugby player.