Despite the scoreline Harlow can take quite a lot of satisfaction from their game against Thurrock on Saturday. With several key players not available and with a desire to give priority to their league campaign in coming weeks they rested several first-choice players providing an opportunity for players from the second team to take part. It also meant that a number of first-team players were called upon to play out of position. The game produced a number of good performances and clearly indicated that if required there are players who are more than capable of moving up from second to first team.

The game started extremely well for Harlow and for most of the first 15 minutes they kept play in the Thurrock half. They produced a number of good attacks both running moves from backs and attempts by the forwards to drive over the line with ball in hand. It was only the superior weight of their forwards which allowed Thurrock to keep a clean scoresheet. The first period of pressure ended with Thurrock conceding a penalty which just missed the posts. Harlow were very promptly back onto the attack and again the forwards took the ball forward driving for the line again Thurrock, who had no option but to kill the ball, conceded a further penalty being quite fortunate in keeping all their players on a park. This time Francis Brown playing at No. 10 was spot on with the kick and Harlow had a three-point lead. They kept their lead for a further 10 minutes before the breakout against the run of play by Thurrock allowed them to score a try and slot a conversion for a seven-point 3 lead. In the closing 10 minutes of the first half Thurrock began to break out and exposed potential gaps in the Harlow defence taking the score to 23 points to 3 at half-time.

Harlow started well in the second half but the pressure of defending against a much heavier side was beginning to tell. They had several good attacking opportunities through the backs on one occasion Chris Webb playing on the wing beat two defenders before feeding Ali Phillips the Harlow full-back who continued the move and was only taken out about 15 metres short. The pressure did begin to tell however and a further try by Thurrock extended their margin. Tactical substitutions by Thurrock enabled them to commit further weight in both forwards and backs and Harlow found themselves still winning ball but frequently from static positions or on the back pedal. Another converted try by Thurrock took the score to 35-3. Harlow however continued to attack at any opportunity and awarded a penalty for killing the ball midfield, kicked accurately deep into the Thurrock half. From a throw-in they set up an extremely good rolling maul and drove the much heavier but less organised Thurrock pack back over their try-line for Scott Romaine to touchdown for the try. Minutes later Harlow were back into almost the same position and again driving from the line at this time Thurrock just managed to halt the maul. A further very good attack by the Harlow backs almost broke through but unfortunately from Harlow point of view lead to their centre Gareth Polkinghorne being taken out very heavily and leaving the field with a leg injury. Harlow had already committed their substitutes and were therefore forced to play the last 10 minutes of the game a man short leaving Thurrock with a permanent overlap in the backs. They exploited it well run into more unconverted tries for a final 49 to 8 scoreline which does not do justice to the determination which Harlow showed throughout the game. Particularly worth a mention was the very good pace shown by Steve Ward in the first half and Chris Webb in the second half on the wing and Ali Phillips at full-back. Gareth Polkinghorne was very solid at centre and despite enormous pressure from the Thurrock No. 8 and flankers Neil Fitzpatrick played with great courage at scrum-half.

Next weekend Harlow will need every possible player to be available. The first team have an absolutely vital league match away against mid-table Braintree while the seconds travel to Barking for the final of the Essex second team Cup. Qualifying for the final represents probably the most successful performance by the second team for several years and although they are facing the second team from a National League Division Two side based on their semi-final performance plus the performance of several the players in the game last Saturday they will be able to ask Barking a few interesting questions.