A battling and spirited performance from Newbury Blues Ladies wasn’t enough to prevent them from slipping to a 31-0 defeat against Championship South 1 high-flyers Thurrock. Newbury made a strong start with Meg Mason and Becks Reeves making life typically difficult for the promotion-chasing visitors. Some superb defending from full-back Chloe Darby then kept Thurrock out at the cost of a scrum on the home side’s own five metre line. Newbury’s dominant pack managed to regain possession at the scrum but, after the hosts were penalised for not releasing, Thurrock were gifted another golden opport…