A frosty and very cold morning welcomed Romford U14s and Thurrock U14s to Crow Lane. We walked gingerly over the thick ice in the car park to start the game. A difficult first half left Romford stunned. After conceding 2 early tries from Thurrock there was some good work from a line out which enabled Ade Olaleye, Sam Slatford and Ryan Page to combine to send Tom O’Meara streaking down the wing to score Romford’s first try. However all the defensive work that Romford put together could not stop Thurrock scoring six more unanswered tries. A difficult first half and a swansong for Rajan Dhadwar who sadly played his last game for Romford today – we wish him well.

Half time: RGP 5-42 Thurrock

This was to be a game of two halves though and a rejuvenated Romford side came out after half time with their heads held high. Straight away some excellent work from the scrum enabled Tom O’Meara to dance through the Thurrock defence to dot the ball down for his second try of the game. It wasn’t long before Romford scored again some excellent work from midfield allowed Ade Olaleye to force his way through the Thurrock defence and some excellent backing up James Mimms allowed him to score Romford’s third try which was duly converted by Sam Slatford. Thurrock took the next score but Romford kept pressing the Thurrock defence and spent the majority of the second half camped in Thurrock’s 22 and sure enough is wasn’t long before Michael Courtney converted this pressure into a fourth try directly under the posts that Sam Slatford again converted. A breakaway try finished Thurrock’s scoring for the game but the game ended with a fabulous individual try from Luke Metcalf who sauntered through the Thurrock defence with the ball from one try line to the other to score Romford’s fifth try of the game.

Although this game ended in a Romford loss, an excellent second half shows there are more positive results yet to come from the Romford U14s this season.

Final Score:

RGP 29
Thurrock 55

Tries: Tom O’Meara (2), J. Mimms, Michael Courtney, Luke Metcalf
Conversions: Sam Slatford (2)

Squad: L. Metcalf (c), H. Runham, L. Potter, A. Olaleye, M. Courtney, R. Pooley, S. Kerr, B. Watts, R. Page, L. Palmer-Anscomb, B. Shawyer, O. Flower, B. Walton, J. Mimms, T. O’Meara, T. Polius, S. Slatford, R. Blinkhorne, R. Dhadwar, N. Fragjaj

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