Harlow 28 Romford 28

London Three North East

Romford managed to close the gap for a draw in the closing minutes of the game against an injury hit Harlow side on Saturday.  Scott Romaine sustained a break to his lower leg combined with a serious ankle dislocation which will rule him out for the rest of the season and beyond. He shares hooking duties with Stuart Wilkins but is a versatile player who can double up as a flanker and his absence will pose serious problems for the Rams.

Romford started strongly with a breakaway try by their No.8 in the third minute converted by their scrum half for a 7 point lead. Four minutes later Harlow struck back with a penalty from skipper Nick Ford.  The following 2o minutes saw Harlow’s best period of the game. A combination of good driving play by the forwards and accurate touch finding by Ford kept most of the play in the Romford half. Several attacking runs by the backs came close to the try line before on the 17^th minute fullback Francis Brown came into the line and some good handling by the backs set up winger Simon Vanbeck who powered his way over in the corner for an unconverted try making it 8 – 7 to Harlow.  The Harlow backs continued to pressure the Romford line and five minutes later Will Grimley on the other wing was too quick for the defence and ran in a second Harlow try, converted by Ford taking the score to 15 – 7. At this point Harlow lost Hans Barnard with a hamstring injury and Darren Hawkins came on. A penalty on 30 minutes extended the home lead to 18 – 7 but then just before the end of the half the visitors hit back with a converted try of their own making it 18 – 14 at the interval.

Harlow started the second half well with some good pressure on the Romford line but could not find a gap. And so when Ford was offered a penalty on 54 minutes he opted to go for the posts making in 21 – 14 to Harlow.  Harlow had two more good attacking moves but it was from the second of these that Romaine wend down with his leg caught underneath him and sustained his injury. Play was delayed for ten minutes while he received treatment and as he could not be moved the decision was made to continue on the adjacent pitch. As Harlow had already used their other forward replacement David Stradling the backs replacement came on at flanker.  Romford seeing the chance of taking the game started strongly and pegged Harlow back in their own half. A great interception by Will Grimley saw hi run 60 yards to score under the posts and Ford slotted the kick to make it 28 – 14. It looked as if Harlow had a big enough margin to hang on but Romford hit back with two converted tries in the closing minutes to level the game at 28 points all.

Rochford lost on Saturday so Harlow move above them to third place on equal league points but with the better points difference. This sets up an interesting contest next Saturday when the two clubs meet at Rochford’s ground.

Tries: Will Grimley (2), Simon Vanbeck,

Conversions: Nick Ford (2)

Penalties: Nick Ford (3)

1. - Gary Brown  

2. - Stuart Wilkins

3. - Paul Prindiville  

4. - Jon Snow

5. - Paul Eynon (Sub 55 mins Michael Weston )

6. - Hans Barnard (Sub 20 mins Darran Hawkins)

7. - Scott Romaine (Sub 60 mins David Stradling)

8. - Kain Claridge

9. - Lee Harron

10. - Nick Ford

11. - Will Grimley

12. - Josh Bohl

13. - James McFerran

14. - Simon Vanbeck

15. - Francis Brown

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