Colchester 39 Harlow 8

Senior Vase

An under strength Harlow side battled against a powerful Colchester team and bowed out of the cup in the fourth round. Colchester are in the league below Harlow but have improved their side , are currrently top of that league, and are pushing hard for promotion.                                   

Harlow was without first choice players Tom Webb, and James McFerran who were on the sick list. They were also missing Simon Vanbeck and Hans Barnard, both injured. Lee Harron had to play at Fly half and new boy Adam Mills  came on to the substitutes bench and made his debut after 60 minutes replacing Luke Bowering.

The Colchester three quarters were a handful for the Rams defence and within five minutes had scored . After twenty minutes, having added two more tries and one conversion, they lead by 17-0 before the Rams were able to reply. A scrummage in the Colchester twenty two was won against the head by hooker Stuart Wilkins , Skipper Paul Eynon broke from the base of the scrum and crashed over the line. The try was not converted and five minutes later the home side scored another try.

Harlow replied with a period of pressure on the Colchester line and were rewarded with a  penalty which Harron despatched over the bar. The half time score was 8-22.

After the restart the home side continued to attack and scored a penalty goal and a fifth try down the wing. Paul Prindiville was then replaced by Mubashar Mahmood in the front row and Mark Bowering came on for Mark Twiner.

Harlow were able to exert some pressure on the Colchester line but unable to convert their chances into points. Then Colchester struck again and scored another try., which was converted.

Mills came on to the pitch on the wing and made several try saving tackles to keep the home side from scoring. .Harlow stuck to their task in the dying minutes but could not add to their score . With so many team changes at the last minute they were never likely to win this game but poor defence in the mid field allowed Colchester to score freely throughout.

Next Saturday Harlow travel to Saffron Walden who beat them 21-18 in October. Harlow need another win to improve their league position and Saffron Walden are only two points in front of them.

Tries: Paul Eynon

Conversions:  

Penalties: Lee Harron

Team List

1 -  Matt Branch

2 -  Stuart Wilkins
3 -  Paul Prindiville (Sub 60 mins Mobasher Mahmood )

4 -  Adam Paine
5 -  Mark Twiner (Sub 55 mins  Mark Bowering )

6 -  Darren Hawkins
7 -  Shaun Roberts 

8 -  Paul Eynon

9 -  Charlie Woodington

10 - Lee Harron

11 - Chris Webb
12 - Gareth Powell  

13 - Will Grimley
14 - Luke Bowering (Sub 50 mins  Adam Mills)

15 - Sean Banks

Sub not used: Tom Webb  

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