Stowmarket 19 Thurrock 34

THURROCK made the long journey to Suffolk with a raft of changes that gave opportunities to the popular trio of Anthony Catchpole, Alfie Bailey and the ubiquitous Callum Pluck.

As we all know, Murphy's Law is a supposed law of nature suggesting that everything that can possibly go wrong does go wrong!

And that definition of the law has often seemed to be the case for talented all-rounder, Rob Murphy. His injury list was about as long as that of the original " Sick- Note", Darren Anderton!

Having appeared in a variety of positions in his long career, Murphy found himself selected on the wing for Thurrock's first excursion to Stowmarket in Suffolk.

This mythical law could equally apply to Murphy's team who, throughout this season have placed themselves in almost impregnable positions, before a series of mishaps and yellow cards allow the opposition to claw back the deficit.

Thurrock entered the fray with their usual zeal and organisational adroitness. With two scrum-halves in Ed Stevens and Alex Jones at half-back, some slick passing allowed the indefatigable Niall Clifford to link with the irrepressible Henry Bird and select a beautiful line which allowed the former Ulsterman to penetrate the home defence with such rapier-like precision that he was under the posts in 'the drop of a hat.'

With Caolan Watts-Adams and Jay Jennings ruling the airways with Dritan Loka; the next score was inevitable and came courtesy of a pre-set move and skipper Ben Timson strolled over almost unopposed. Rhys Cotter had converted the first try, but was unable to increase his tally from wide-out.

From the Stowmarket kick-off, Aaron Antrobus gathered on the hoof and the pack charged forward like a bloat of hippopotami! Although the defence lay in wait like a 'nest of vipers' the continuity provided by Dan Ulph and the ever- industrious Lawrence Brown meant that Watts-Adams could add to his tally in his try scoring battle with Loka to supersede Aaron Woodward and James Flavin in the Thurrock annals.

So, in typical fashion, the visitors had raced into what seemed like an unassailable lead.

Then the curse of the yellow cards came into play as the Oakfielders succumbed to two in rapid succession!

Luke Keatley and Jack Cole began to orchestrate the Stowmarket driving maul to great effect and a brace of tries brought the home side into contention.

The inappropriately named Jack Norfolk was starting to have an impact as Thurrock seemed to have invited pressure. Even though Cotter and Harry Reynolds had some fine incursions into the line, it was Stowmarket who narrowed the lead to 19-22 .

With Thurrock placing themselves in a little jeopardy, it was time to tighten procedures. Henry Bird put in some big hits as captain Timson restored structure. From a rolling maul of their own, aided and abetted by the sheer power of Frank Wright, Aaron Antrobus crashed over, before a clever piece of support work by Loka led to the lock being the beneficiary of some fine work by the backs.

Man of the match was Rob Murphy whose attention to detail, tackling and fine footwork demonstrated that the law which bears his name is purely mythical!

This weekend Thurrock travel to Woodford in a re-arranged fixture.