Thurrock 10, Eton Manor 25

ON a weekend when England just fell agonisingly short in the World Cup semi final, Thurrock suffered the same fate at the hands of their East London rivals.

In his preview of the World Cup semi-finals, Brian O'Driscoll had suggested that all of the Quarter-Finals could have ended differently and, pp

Eton Manor is a famous part of Hackney,where Old Etonians Arthur Villiers and Gerald Wellesley(the grandson of the Duke of Wellington) used their philanthropic powers to re-generate a poverty stricken part of London at the Wilderness. The walled Eton Park had football and rugby pitches and an Athletics Stadium with the track having been brought in from Wembley after the 1948 Olympics.

Villiers was famous for his kind deeds including wandering around the East End with bundles of money to give to people whose homes had been damaged in The Blitz!

The Rugby Club which was founded in 1928 has rarely shown such generosity in allowing the opposition easy victories and Saturday's encounter was another stolen journey for Thurrock's youthful team.

With much of the country ravaged by Storm Babet Thurrock's ground staff had once again, produced a magnificent playing surface, which is proving to be a little like the Principality Stadium in the sense that everyone enjoys playing there and that almost neutralises home advantage.

Once again Thurrock took the field without some key leaders in Ben Timson and Niall Clifford and this led to Martin Jones having to re-shuffle the team.

Eton Manor launched some early thrusts only to be repelled by some solid defence from the returning Rhys Cotter and Angus Poole.

A strong carry by George Miles was well supported by Lawrence Brown, Anthony Catchpole and skipper for the day Kye Holloway, but Alessandro Minns was proving a real handful, popping up all over Oakfield.

After a minor infringement Tony Bly kicked a penalty, before an attempted clearance was charged down by Minns to gleefully dot down for an unconverted try.

Thurrock put together a good passage of play through some neat breaks from half- backs Scott Chitty and Blake Burns.

After a penalty into the corner, a superb line-out routine saw Watts-Adams climbing highest to set up the circumrotary drive to the line for Dan Ulph to score yet another in his collection of tries.

Burns hit a fine conversion to reduce the deficit.

A clever "chip and chase" by Kye Holloway almost paid dividends, while returnee Harry Reynolds was trying desperately to get into the action.

With the solidity in the centre being provided by the musculature of Henry Bird and Angus Poole, Thurrock were looking the more likely until a yellow card turned the tide with the Manor able to achieve scrum supremacy.

Scott Thomas scored a fine try which Bly was able to convert, to extend the visitors' lead.

Early in the second half, Minns continued to demonstrate his range of deceptive acceleration to score after a drop-out from under the posts.

Jamie Smith, Callum Pluck and Malachy Watts-Adams, entered the fray, before resident Kiwi, Jamie Orr made a try saving tackle on Salie Rushdie. Burns added a penalty.

A penalty was reversed for dissent, before rampaging No.8, Ifiok Essien-Awak smashed through the defensive alignment to complete the victory. Bly converted.

The score at the final whistle was not drastic, but disappointing, because just like England, the outcome could have been so different apart from a few key moments.

Next week is a bye week which will provide a little recovery time before the crucial encounter with Harlow