THURROCK T Birds secured a memorable 23-20 win against Premiership outfit Richmond in the Senior Cup.

The Ts, of the Championship, were ahead on the scoreboard after five minutes as captain Georgie Cook took a quick tap and forced her way over the line.

This seemed to wake Richmond up and over the next 30 minutes they steadily pulled away with three unconverted scores.

Ts scrum was on top, but the Richmond backline were repeatedly finding room around the outside of the T’s defence.

At 5-15 down and the half drawing to a close, recent T-bird signing Siobhan Longdon–Hughes smashed a hole in the Richmond midfield defence and pulled one back for a respectable 10-15.

While Ts were still celebrating and looking for half time, Richmond’s Laura Kapo ran the same line, this time through T’s defence to end 10 points down.

Fifteen minutes into the half, the new high tackle interpretation saw Kara Hepper taking a 10 minute rest and, in this period, Richmond were unable to score against 14 and Cook kicked a penalty to bring Thurrock to back within seven.

Thurrock were on top but were denied scores by a double movement and a “held up over the line” decision.

The referee called play back and carded the Richmond hooker for another high tackle.

From the penalty Ts went wide and Sally Tuson scored in the corner, although the kick was missed to leave Ts two points short.

Longdon-Hughes got to within five metres of the tryline with three players hanging off her and, from the resulting ruck, a Richmond player cynically came in at the side, killed the ball and was immediately carded.

Once again going wide from the penalty, Tuson did it again to score almost in the same spot and put Ts 23-20 ahead.

With two minutes to play, it was T’s turn to run down the clock and with last play called at a Thurrock scrum, the ball was quickly put into touch for a memorable win.

T-Birds: Hepper, Duffy, Nichols, Franklin, Baker, Prosser, Lockwood, Jordan.S , Cook.G, Rettie, Parsad, Longdon-Hughes, Tyler, Smith, Tuson.

Replacements: Picton.L, Picton.P, Cook.R, Edwards (27), Lawther (37) The T-Birds will now play cup games at Wasps on Sunday and at Lichfield on February 19, with a league game against Trojans in between before returning to Oakfield for the last game of the current league season on March 5.

> The T-Birds welcome new players of any standard to join their two teams. Whether a beginner or more experienced, all are encouraged to attend.

T-Birds training sessions are held on Wednesday evening at 7.30pm.