Thurrock T-Birds 29, Sutton and Epsom 0

T-BIRDS ended the first half of their erratic Championship South season with a comfortable win over bottom club Sutton and Epsom, but they will be looking to improve on performances and consistency after the holiday break - when they will start with the toughest possible test, a trip to league leaders Richmond on Sunday, 11 January.

Yet it was only back in mid-October that T-Birds proved they can compete with the likes of Richmond, beating them 22-12 at Oakfield.

Since then, though, they had only won twice before Sunday's (22 December) clash with Sutton. They won 43-22 at Henley and 24-22 at home to North Bristol but they have suffered some heavy defeats en route to Christmas.

Though defeat didn't look a likely prospect before Sunday's match, there must have been some nerves in the home camp.

However, the game was only in its seventh minute when Thurrock went ahead, overpowering Sutton who had the put in at a scrum near their own line and scrum half Ella Jenkins rounded a wheeling pack and picked up the loose ball before surging over in the corner. Elsie Burns took the conversion from wide out, but it fell short.

T-Birds quickly added to their points tally when more powerful forward play drove Sutton backwards and from close range Elsie Burns dived over. Again, the conversion was missed.

Sutton, who were rarely out of their own half, nevertheless showed great resilience with lots of hard work in and around the scrums and mauls where Thurrock clearly had a powerful advantage. And in the end, around the half hour mark, it took Thurrock spinning the ball out wide at pace to get their third score, Emma West getting on the end of a move to race over in the corner. Once more the extras were missed by Thurrock, who went into the break with a commanding 15-0 lead.

It took just four minutes of the second half for them to add to it.

With the rain teeming down Hannah Sandeman exploited a gap in the Sutton backline and she raced down to put the ball down under the posts, leaving Burns an easy conversion which she didn't strike well but it got over.

From the restart Hannah Thornhill picked the ball up deep in her own half and raced through almost the entire Sutton team, brushing off challenges and outpacing chasers to put the ball down under posts. Again, Burns' strike for the extras wasn't the most convincing but it crept over.

It was to prove to be the last score of the match and credit must be paid to Sutton who kept going in the cold and driving rain to deny Thurrock any more points.

You can watch the whole match here:-