by Jonathan Landi

Thurrock 44
Enfield Ignatians 13

ENFIELD IGNATIANS barren start to their league campaign continued away at Thurrock, and Saturday’s home fixture against Saffron Walden now assumes must win proportions if they are begin the push upwards from second last spot in the table, writes Jonathan Landi.

Winning at Thurrock was always going to be a tall order, as the Essex side, looking good bets for promotion, had previously ruthlessly cast aside Norwich, Romford & Gidea Park and Ipswich in an unbeaten campaign.

However for the first-hour Ignatians traded on equal terms before the hosts finally pulled away for an impressive win. Hooker, Dave Russell, summed up: “At times it felt as if we were playing against a side that had an extra man.”

From the sackcloth and ashes of twice turning over the ball in the opening exchanges, Ignatians had the honour of landing the first try of the game, which came either side of two successful short-range Thurrock penalties landed by Earl Gorman.

In a game in which Ignatians rediscovered the power of the rolling maul, they used this weapon to good effect to work over flanker Neil Cason in a score in which patience and composure were key attributes.

The visitors will also be pleased with the form of fullback and Gaelic football recruit Dannan O’Meachair. Drafted in to replace the injured Andy O’Byrne, he was assured under the high ball and was quick to exploit counterattacking situations.

Shaun Engelbrecht, his face contorted by disappointment at the final whistle, but true to his South African roots, had a barnstormer at lock. Constantly in the thick of it, he continually broke the gain-line and put his side on the front foot.

If anything Ignatians should have made more of their platform but were unable to do so due to a combination of their lineout ‘wobbles’ and losing a couple of strikes against the head which repeatedly handed the initiative back to Thurrock.

Not that their woes ended there as an injury to prop Dean Garside nullified his strengths at tight-head, before a fresh pair of legs in the form of replacement, Richard Peach, enabled Ignatians to eventually regain parity in this area.

However, Thurrock were slow to capitalise until explosive winger, Sam Porter, burst through for a neatly worked try converted by O’Gorman.

Not to be outdone, Ignatians kept in the hunt and some sterling work by Richard Laurence ensured that Thurrock were ‘wrapped up’ at the breakdown, and fly-half Jack Wilson’s boot was quick to punish the hosts for holding-on. more Trailing 13-8 at the break, Ignatians came out firing after the interval only for Wilson to fluff an early penalty before Thurrock came roaring back with another well worked try after carving a huge overlap on the left.

Ignatians were also left a little red-faced at times and a schoolboy howler, which was the legacy of running into a thicket and spilling the ball, rather than attacking the wider, less populated channels, was ruthlessly punished by a Thurrock breakaway score.

Not that Ignatians ever gave up and they certainly rode their luck by claiming a second try after referee, Tony Millard, who had an otherwise excellent game, failed to spot a glaring knock-on from the visitors caused players to freeze in their tracks in anticipation of the scrum.

Not Dan Linehan. He kept going and cashed-in on his good fortune as Ignatians moved within two converted scores, although the conversion from in front of the sticks was inexplicably missed. “In those situations you play to the whistle,” mused the alert winger.

Sadly, Ignatians failed to trouble the scoreboard further, and free-running Thurrock, playing a game to match their impressive facilities, stuck to their expansionist philosophy and added three further tries to put the game beyond reach.

Coach Ali Cook said: “I can’t fault either the commitment or the determination of the side, but we need to reduce our error count.”