Braintree 9 Harlow 14

London League Division Two North East

6th March 2010

The Rams worked hard to gain two valuable points from this cliff hanger played at Braintree on Saturday. Harlow had lost the home fixture to Braintree in November and had to defend well against some fast and tricky three quarter play.
Harlow's policy of developing their own home grown talent was again apparent as they fielded a set of backs with an average age of twenty, the latest recruit, the talented Colts' fly half, seventeen year old Danny Smith. He played his part well, his line kicking excellent , his place kicking a 75% success rate and his field play was promising. He grew in confidence as the game progressed and was instrumental in keeping the play in the Braintree half , Harlow winning the battle for territory.
The Harlow pack was also in great form dominating the lineouts and mauling to good effect throughout.
The match was a very close contest and could have gone either way. In the first half the two sides swapped penalties to leave the score 9 -9 at the interval.
In the second half Lee Harron tried to work the blind side with number 8 Kain Claridge and wing Will Grimley playing their part. Harlow almost succeeded twice when ten minutes into the second half it was Skipper Scott Romaine playing at flanker, who broke away in open play. The Harlow Captain ran powerfully down the left wing, handed off two would be tacklers and scored . Although he was tackled before he made the line, his momentum took him over.
The rest of the match was again equally close.
Craig Willis was Braintree's top scorer. The outside centre scored all nine of their points through penalties . He also missed one difficult kick just after Harlow had scored their try.
After swapping penalties in the first half there was only one score in the second period, Harlow's try scored by Romaine. The Rams had to graft to protect their slender lead and they spent much of the last
quarter defending in their own twenty two. Harron lead by example pulling off some tremendous try saving tackles.
The Rams thoroughly deserved to win this mid table clash and now move to 6th place in the table.

Tries: Scott Romaine

Conversions:  

Penalties: Danny Smith (3)

Team List

1 -  Paul Prindiville

2 -  Stuart Wilkins (Sub 55mins  Shaun Roberts )
3 -  Matt Branch

4 -  Kerry Palmer 

5 -  Paul Eynon  

6 -  Scott Romaine (Captain)
7 -  Mark Bowering

8 -  Kain Claridge

9 -  Lee Harron

10 - Danny Smith

11 - Sean Banks
12 - James McFerran
13 - Luke Bowering (Sub 20 mins - 30 mins Simon Vanbeck Blood)

14 - Will Grimley

15 - Rob Mackie

Sub not used: Danny Lane

To Return to Match Reports Click here