Romford 17 Harlow 0

(Half time 10 - 0)

London Three North East League

A below strength side fought very hard to stay in contention in their game on Saturday but the home side just had the edge. The game was played in heavy rain with a bitterly cold wind and it is a tribute to both sides that they coped with the conditions.  For most of the game it was a hard battle midfield with the conditions combining with the defensive play to break down any attempt at open rugby.

For the first 15 minutes Romford put a lot of pressure on Harlow and had several scoring chances from their backs. They were kept out by determined defence but to be fair also by handling errors which were inevitable in the conditions. As the half progressed Harlow came more into the game and some good touch kicking by McFerran at fly half kept more of the play in the Romford half. On 30 minutes McFerran had a penalty chance but was just wide and then two minutes later Romford finally found the gap putting their winger through for a converted try. With no side able to find a game the game turned round at 7 – 0 to Romford.

Five minutes into the second half Romford had a penalty chance and were on target to extend their lead to 10 points, that all important two score margin. As the half progressed Harlow had more of the play. They made more use of Eynon on the No.8 pick up and he was very effective in getting over the gain line and setting the ball. Harlow however were not able to recycle quickly enough to put in the second hit. Both wingers, Grimley and Vanbeck had breaks which put on pressure but in the wet conditions did not have the pace to exploit the very few gaps. In the closing minutes Romford mounted several strong attacks on the Harlow line using their forwards to good effect. The first two attacks were blocked by the Harlow pack but then with just two minutes to go the Romford loose head prop used his weight to crash over for the try which was converted with the final kick of the match.

This leaves Harlow in 10^th place in the league in what is a very close contest. They have games against some of the lower sides to come in the weeks ahead and it is important that they cope with their serious injury problems and take the points. At present McFerran is playing well at fly half in place of the injured Humphries and Mackie is very effective at fullback in the absence of Brown. It does however leave Harlow with a lack of cover in the backs and more seriously with less attacking options.