Horsham’s winning streak ends with heavy home loss

Ian Paku (centre) was Horshams man of the match against Thurrock. Picture by Rick Harman

There was to be no repeat of the heroics when the Green and Whites came away from their trip to Essex in October with a dramatic last minute win.

Instead after a bright start Horsham turned out their flattest and most porous defensive performance of the season to date conceding eight tries in the process against a strong Thurrock side belying their lowly position.

Horsham flew out of the blocks to cross the line in the second minute. A great set of play and multiple phases saw 18-year-old Oli Chennell use his strength to score his first try for the first XV out wide.

This was to be the last time Horsham troubled the scoreboard until the 65th minute as Thurrock scored eight tries without reply with a hat-trick of tries from Dan Stone, as well as scores from Kye Holloway, Joss Nunn, Dan Ulph, Dan Carey and Tani Loka.

There were also two conversions from Dylan Fearon and one from Henry Bird.

With the game entering the final stages Horsham finished strongly with a couple of consolation tries from Declan Nwachukwu, the first of which came after a nice delay by Jake Fisher to put Ian Paku into space, and the second after a good interchange of passes with Ciaran Preston.

Horsham head coach Nick Stocker said: ““A thoroughly disappointing performance from the lads today who came up against a committed Thurrock team who displayed a hunger for the ball throughout.

“Our discipline in the first half allowed Thurrock to gain field position and with a steady source of possession at set piece they found space against our ineffective tackling and opened up an unassailable lead.

“On the bright side, the Thurrock management and players were magnanimous in victory and contributed fully to an enjoyable post-match beer in the clubhouse where Ian Paku was nominated as man of the match.

“The week’s break will be much needed to fine tune some of the deficiencies exposed by Thurrock, with the next fixture on February 15 a tough game at Camberley for both the first team and Lions.

“Before that, the Lions play Hove away in the Bob Rogers cup looking to defend the cup we hold.”