By Mark Bruce

Gravesend recorded their first back-to-back victories of the Regional 2 South East season with a 38-26 success against a much-improved Thurrock side.

The hosts started the brighter in this battle of the division’s bottom two and were on the scoreboard after five minutes when, from a driving maul, Stan Dadson grounded the ball to give Gravesend an early lead.

Gs then switched off, allowing Thurrock to score two tries, a well-worked one out wide and a fairly fortuitous kick and chase which bounced kindly for the attackers and allowed them to collect and scamper home.

A well-worked backs move allowed Finlay White to capitalise for Gravesend’s second touchdown on 25 minutes but Thurrock were not done and scored another try with 10 minutes of the half remaining, turning around 19-14 to the good.

The second half saw the bigger Essex side tire somewhat and Gravesend took full advantage. Will Stener was the first to barrel his way over and top try scorer Dadson was next up, taking advantage of the dominance the pack were starting to assert.

However, as in previous games, Gravesend were guilty of taking the wrong option and overplaying in midfield - allowing the Thurrock fly-half to break through. The score was now 28-26 to Gravesend with a quarter of the match to play.

Samraj Chahal eased the nerves somewhat with the next score, but with the conversion missed only seven points separated the teams - until Nathan Alderson fought his way over out wide to start the celebrations and give Gravesend the win.

Victory leaves them level on points with third-bottom Old Colfeians and just four behind ninth-placed Dartfordians. Gravesend visit fifth-placed Reeds Weybridge on Saturday.