Old Habs 1st XV vs Thurrock 1st XV

It has been a mixed start to the season for Old Habs with two wins out of five so the away trip to London North 1 newcomers Thurrock was a crucial fixture to get the season back on track. It therefore wasn’t great omens that preparations pre-match were far from ideal. Twenty-hours out from kick-off Pat had to drop out due to a positive Covid test leaving a gaping hole at loosehead prop. James Clark and the rest of the selection committee spent the next few hours panic dialling through their Filofaxes for a qualified prop to no avail. Rumours were abound that Clarky was still looking for props on Saturday morning at Fenchurch street station before heading to Thurrock. But cometh the hour, cometh the man and Tommy the Gunn reluctantly agreed to ‘give it a go’ having earlier in the season featuring in a cameo against Shelford at hooker. Despite the front row crisis there were welcome signs in the rest of the XV with Josh Downie’s first appearance of the season alongside an excellent debut for Joey Gatus at fullback, on loan from Blackheath, who in stark contrast to reigning Habs man of steel and older brother Jonny plays in the backs and also “loves drinking”.

The front row experiment got its first test early into the game and the Haberdashers faithful collectively held their breath. To the great surprise of many Habs got the shove on at the scrum asserting their dominance and set a tone for the rest of the day with not a single scrum going backwards and several penalties won at the set piece – credit due to Jonny Gatus and Ian Sanderson. With the main worrywart out the way it was clear the route to victory was ensuring the backline got enough ball. The deadlock was broken after a period of concerted pressure saw Josh Seabrook dive over in the corner putting to bed the doubters after his 0340am selfie from Fabric the night before (he was right rewarded with DoD for this act). Second try was scored by Tommy the Gunn plopping over from short range after a series of pick and gos to complete his prop transition. At 12-0 Haberdashers were cruising but Thurrock weren’t without threat – several times cutting through the defence to almost go the length of the field and but for some excellent scramble defence could have breached the line.

Thurrock got off the mark with a penalty in front of the sticks after Ian Sanderson was pinged for bad sportsmanship for calling for an offload from the opposition. It was an interesting stall for the referee to set as they were some choice words directed his way by the opposition in the second half that went unpunished.

This bad luck was later followed another blow as the terrible run of injuries continued with a game ending injury for the 6th game in a row. This time Harvey Taylor limped (crawled) off with a recurrent knee injury that looks to have sit him on the side-lines for at least 6 weeks – a big blow with George Seabrook and Harri Smith both out with serious injuries. But where one door closes another one opens which saw the first 1st XV cap for fan favourite and minor celebrity Tom Marsh to enter the field and he credited himself with a typical Marshy performance – physical and persistent.

Despite being under the cosh for the rest of the first half Habs escaped with just one more penalty to go in at halftime 12-6 knowing that the game was in the balance. In the first 20 of the second half Habs finally got the ball in the hands of their best runners with Joey Gatus and Briffitt making numerous metres in hand and Clarky managed to open his legs up reminding everyone what he’s capable of. Joey Gatus capped off his debut with a try and Briff galloped in for the bonus point in another dominant display. Josh Seabrook was also unlucky not to go in for a second time after a scintillating break by Sam Pollard.

Habs spent the majority of the last 20 combatting a spirited Thurrock fightback and momentum was stalled with Josh Downie exiting with a head knock and JP being sin binned for an unfortunate deliberate knock-on. In this period of sustained Thurrock pressure they did manage to get over the try-line and there were several tight escapes to boot with some desperate man defence on the try-line that would have made Fish proud. Ultimately Habs held out long enough for the score to feel relatively comfortable – so much so that Antoine decided to leave the pitch early with two mins to go and leaving the pack with six men at the final scrum.

A great 5 points on the road for Haberdashers taking on a strong Brentwood team next week at Croxdale for Tony Alexander’s memorial lunch which is set be the biggest day in Habs history & we can’t wait to make the legend proud.

Scorers: Seabrook, Arnott, Gatus, Briffitt

Kicks: Mchghee 3 conv, 1 penalty

MoM: Arnott