FOLLOWING Thurrock T-Birds' win at Twickenham this afternoon (Sunday, 18 May), Thurrock RFC men made it a club double by lifting the Regional 2 South Shield at Bristol this evening (Sunday, 18 May).

In an exciting match they beat Devon side Cullompton 35-34.

The men finished a tough season, which saw them finish bottom of their Regional 2 South East division, on a high, in a nail biting final to win the Regional 2 South Shield.

This is the first piece of silverware for the men since 2012, with Tani Loka, Nat Farrell, Darryl Worster and Ben Timson surviving members from that league winning squad

Today's squad also included five players from last season's Colts squad so, woith a new coaching set up and a fresh start in Counties 1 Essex next season, despiter being relegated to Level 7 for the first time in almost 20 years, the future is looking bright for tees.

The match report is here:-

Cullompton 34, Thurrock 35

THURROCk men's first XV brought the curtain down on a tough season with a glimpse of what the future could hold. A season that has seen the men relegated to Level 7 for the first time in almost 20 years ended in Bristol on Sunday evening as they triumphed in the Regional 2 South Final, with victory over Cullompton RFC.

Cullompton took the early control of the game as they raced into a 17-0 lead with two unanswered converted tries and a Penalty.

Tees came back into it with a try shortly before half time. Player coach, Darryl Worster dinked a lovely box kick into the opposition 22 and Dan Ulph showed his turn of speed to outsprint the defence to dot down. James Fergus added the conversion to bring an end to the First half

HT - Cullompton 17-7 Thurrock

If that score before the break was to inspire Thurrock to a comeback, Cullompton had other ideas as they scored straight after the restart to stretch their lead back to 14.

Thurrock swiftly reduced that deficit with Dan Ulph again getting on the scoreboard with a trademark finish from the back of a driving maul. James Fergus hit a sublime conversion from out wide.

Tees were invigorated and a copy book from the first half almost saw the same result. A box kick from Worster saw Ulph volley ahead this time for Nat Farrell to pounce on the ball. He was stopped shortly, but the boys moved the ball quickly across the field to Ahmed Aminu.

The powerful winger spun, tiptoed and danced through the defence for a fine individual score close to the posts. Fergus once again converted to bring the score to 24-21 in Cullompton's favour.

As Thurrock started to build momentum, the opposition brought a sense of calmness to proceedings though, as they stretched their lead with another penalty kick.

On the next attack, Tees task was made that little bit tougher as captain, Kodie Holloway was shown a yellow card. Cullompton made the most of the man advantage as they made their way down the pitch to score their fourth converted try of the afternoon to put them into what seemed an unassailable lead of 34-21 with 10 minutes to go.

Tees had other ideas though, as they roared back again.

Another driving maul looked to have seen Dan Ulph score his hattrick try. Unfortunately, the officials deemed it a knock on and Cullompton were rewarded the scrum.

From the resulting scrum, Cullompton's clearing kick only found its way to Aminu, who once again proved a handful for Cullompton as he weaved through the defence before off loading for James Fergus to score and convert.

Despite being down to 14 men, Thurrock had the wind in their sails and were attacking with vigor.

Big carries from the inspirational Ben Timson and Jay Jennings put Cullompton on the back foot.

Nat Farrell was close to scoring as he was stopped short of the line. The tackler was shown a yellow card for slowing the ball down as Holloway made his way back on, giving Tees a man advantage for the final five minutes and increased the hopes of a late try.

The Thurrock supporters were not to be disappointed as a lovely miss pass from Holloway found that man, Aminu to complete his brace.

Cullompton attempted to charge down the conversion attempt but they could only look back as Fergus once again converted, giving himself a 15 point haul, but more importantly, Thurrock the lead at 35-34 with minutes to go.

The following five minutes saw Tees show great maturity as they kept hold of possession to wind the clock down.

As coach Darryl Worster screamed "10 seconds", captain Kodie Holloway had the final say, booting the ball off the field to secure the men's first trophy since winning the old London 1 North league in 2012.

It was a magnificent end to an otherwise disappointing season for the men.

Credit must go to the coaching team of Darryl Worster, Wayne Tredwell and Andre Villiers who came in towards the end of the season once their league status had been relegated and managed to get the group to buy in to the cup run with the majority of the squad making themselves available despite the opposition call offs in the earlier rounds.