Harlow 24 Westcliff 14

London League Division 3

Harlow celebrated their 50^th birthday in style on Saturday starting with a pre-match lunch attended by 90 former players from all generations of the club’s existence. President Mike Ryland started the proceedings by unveiling a plaque commemorating the meeting at the Essex Skipper exactly 50 years ago at which the decision was made to form the club. The immediately before lunch there was a minutes silence as a tribute to absent friends. With all of those from lunch plus as many others again on the touchline, the team had great support and they really responded. The visitors have had some very big wins over highly placed sides and were expected to be a tough proposition Harlow had made a number of team changes, partly forced by injury but also to some extent in anticipation of the task in hand. Westcliff have some fast high scoring backs who will inflict damage given any chance to move. Harlow were playing Scott Thorn at centre, normally a flanker. His robust tackling made a big difference and he was joined at no 13 by James McFerran normally a fullback Shaun Roberts made a welcome return to the first team at blind side flanker and again is strong in defence. The outcome was that the backs with solid support from the pack hit Westcliff with a very tight defensive line and allowed them little chance to attack and when they made even a slight mistake there were players right there to exploit it.

Harlow started well and at the first two scrums drove Westcliff back. The first ten minutes was played in the visitors half and the Rams came close with a rolling maul but were pushed back by a good clearance kick. Westcliff had their first attacking chance and ran the ball into the Harlow half but hit the Harlow defensive line and Vanbeck pounced on a loose ball from the tackle and out-sprinted two defenders of a try in the corner, giving Harlow a lead which they were to hold for the rest of the match. For the next fifteen minutes the visitors tried to kick for position but soon found that it did not help. If the went for touch Jon Snow presented safe hands in the lineout. If the put the ball down the centre Harlow fullback Matt Howard simple showed his speed and strength in the counter attack. It was Howard who added the next Harlow try coming into the line to take a pass from McFerran and split the defence. Over the final 20 metres had the option of Smith outside him but decided to take on the fullback and go fir the line. The tackle went in two paces out but his strength and momentum carried him over. Phil Ellis slotted a long conversion to add the extra two points for a 12 – 0 lead which stood till half time.

Early in the second half Westcliff finally did manage to get the ball out and ran in a good try close to the posts and converted to cut the margin to 12 – 7. Their joy was short liver however when Thorne put in a great tackle on their centre allowing McFerran to pounce on a loose ball and run in for the try. Ellis was just wide with the conversion but at 17 – 7 Harlow had the comfort of a two score margin. By this stage Harlow were in total control in the lineout, safe on their ball and stealing some of the opposition throws and as a result were able to pin the visitors back into their own 22 for a lot of the time. The final try came from Lee Harron when Westcliff were force back onto their try line. Their fly half tried to kick clear but Lee charge it down and then won the race for the loose ball to touch down close to the touchline. Ellis slotted another great conversion for a 24 – 7 lead. In the final minutes the second Westcliff try came from the only defensive error of the game. Westcliff knocked on and the referee seemed to indicate that he was playing advantage but apparently had not seen it. For a fraction of a second Harlow concentration lapsed and they ran in the try to set the final score at 24 – 14. The overall view at the end was that it was the best and above all most committed performance by Harlow for a long time. As a result they move up from 7^th to fifth in the league.

Next week Harlow are away to Ipswich, another side performing well and will face a similar challenge to last Saturday. That game will round off the first half of the season and if they could steal the points it would put them in a great position.

Tries: Simon Vanbeck, Matt Howard, Lee Harron, James McFerran

Conversions: Phil Ellis (2)

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1. Gary Brown (Sub James Ephgrave)

2. Scott Romaine

3. Paul Prindiville

4. Jon Snow

5. Paul Scott

6. Shaun Roberts (Sub Robert Cochrane)

7. Mark Pickett
8. Paul Eynon (Captain)

9. Lee Harron
10. Phil Ellis
11. Lee Smith (Sub Ian Rundall)

12. Scott Thorne

13. James McFerran

14. Simon Vanbeck

15. Matt Howard

Sub not used: Francis Brown

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