Colchester 41 Harlow 12

Half time 19 - 15

London League Division Two North East

10th October 2009

Harlow met league leaders Colchester on Saturday and discovered what has set them off on such a great start to the season. They have a very skilful and fast moving set of backs and their back row players have the pace and ability to link up with them. For most of the first half Harlow matched them well but it was a burst of four tries by Colchester in the third quarter which destroyed any chances that Harlow had of stealing the game. Although in the final quarter Harlow came back into the game and improved their position with a late converted try they will need to improve their performer its considerably if they are going to cause Colchester any worries in the return fixture. On Saturday Harlow did have a number of regular key players missing, mainly through injury, and against such a well drilled side the lack of experience playing together as a unit was going to be a problem. New Harlow signing Michael Dobson had a good game at fly half and shows the potential to solve some of the problems in the Harlow back division.

The game started quite well for Harlow with them taking play down into the Colchester half and applying some useful pressure but on 5 minutes when Colchester had forced their way up into the Harlow 22 a drive by their pack put their hooker Armitage over for an a try. Colchester extended their lead on the 13th Min when their centre Bramley went over for the first of his three tries in the match and the conversion gave them a 12 point lead. At this stage Harlow were still having a reasonable share of the game and when Dobson moved the ball out to David Stradling he cut outside two defenders before feeding a very neat passed to Dan Hockley who scored a try for Harlow. For most of the remainder of the half it was cut and thrust play between the two sides and with the scoreline at 12 - 5 Harlow could be reasonably pleased with the situation. With about 7 minutes to go to the end of the half Luke Bowering was yellow carded for what was considered to be a dangerous tackle and Colchester took advantage of the situation to run in another tried before the turnaround which with the conversion took the score to 19 points to five.

It was in the first 20 minutes of the second half that Colchester took complete control of the game. They moved the ball quickly through the hand and found frequent defensive gaps in the Harlow line. When the Rams were able to cover their attack they simply move the ball back to the opposite wing and came again. By the 60th minute they had run in four excellent tries and with the score at 41 points to five Harlow looked to be in considerable difficulty. To their credit however they rallied well in the last quarter, tackling much harder and breaking down the Colchester attacks. A combination of driving play by the forwards and some good tactical kicking for position allowed them to play a reasonable proportion of the game in the Colchester half and a well timed kick ahead on a loose ball allowed Darren Hawkins to chase it down for a try. Dobson converted taking the score to 41 points to 12 and to their credit Harlow continued the pressure and finished the game attacking from deep in the Colchester 22.

This Saturday Harlow are at home to Chelmsford who have also made a good start to the season. It was always going to be a tough game and a lot will depend on player availability. Although the Rams have some very good young players making it into the first team this year, for the time being they still need a defensive experience of the more established players particularly when up against very experienced sides.
 

Tries: Dan Hockley, Darren Hawkins

Conversions:  Michael Dobson

Penalties:

Yellow Card: Luke Bowering 35 mins

Team List

1 -  James Ephgrave (Sub Matt Branch 70 mins)

2 -  Stuart Wilkins
3 -  Paul Prindiville

4 -  Kerry Palmer
5 -  Mark Twiner
6 -  Darren Hawkins
7 -  Scott Romaine (Captain)
8 -  Shaun Roberts
9 -  Lee Harron
10 - Michael Dobson
11 - Will Grimley
12 - David Stradling  (Sub Wayne Heapy 50 mins)
13 - Luke Bowering
14 - Dan Hockley
15 - Rob Mackie (Sub Mark Bowering 70 mins)

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