Harlow 31 Ipswich 10

London League Division Two North East

7th November 2009

Harlow put their problems behind them last Saturday to produce a convincing win against Ipswich. With both clubs struggling near the bottom of the table and only separated by points difference the win was doubly important to the Rams. They were undoubtedly helped by the return of a number of players from the injured list. Brown at fullback is rapidly recovering his confidence after more than a year away from the game and the return of McFerran provided extra power in the centre. Paul Eynon who came on as an early replacement added extra attacking potential in the forwards and the return of Darren Hawkins also added both mobility and a regular supply of safe clean line out ball. Simon Vanbeck only came on to the wing briefly at the end of the game but his return to fitness will also make a significant difference in future matches. Perhaps the only setback to Harlow was the loss of Mark Twiner after 15 minutes with an elbow dislocation which will put him out of action for some time.

Playing down the slope Ipswich started strongly and for the first seven or eight minutes of the game put Harlow under a lot of pressure deep inside their 22. Eventually Harlow secured the ball at a turnover and were able to clear up field without having conceded a score. They started to take the attack to the visitors making good use of driving moves by the pack and things were going well until on 15 minutes Twiner’s injury produced a long stoppage and Eynon came on to replace him. Harlow continued to attack through their forwards and on 25 minutes they set up a good rolling maul from the lineout driving over the line where Prindiville grounded the ball for the first try and a 5 point lead. Harlow took cleanly from the kick off and immediately took play back up into the visitors half. Three minutes later a passing move went wrong for Ipswich and the ball went loose, the kick ahead by Harlow pushed it across field and a Eynon who was at the front of a bunch of chasing forwards scooped it up. He rolled sideways out of one tackle and despite having passing options outside him opted to go for the line himself bouncing one defender off and touching down for the second try. Dobson was just off target with the conversion but the 10th point lead seems to give Harlow further confidence. On 35 minutes a breakout by Ipswich took them down deep into the Harlow half and their fullback found a gap to go over the line narrowing the score to 10 points to five. Immediately from the restart Hawkins was on the front of another Harlow forward charge and outpaced the defence to touch down to the right to the posts. Dobson’s conversion went through the middle and Harlow turned round for the second half with a 17 points to five lead.

Less than 10 minutes after the restart Harlow took a tighter grip on the game with a try which was very much a team effort. From a scrum close to the Ipswich 22 the pack took the ball against the head and Harron and Dobson moved it out wide to the backs. Harron looped across taking an inside pass before cutting over the try line and swerving round towards the posts to touch down. Dobson was on target with the conversion and Harlow had a 24 points to 5 lead. This was almost immediately reduced when Ipswich came back strongly from the kick off to add another unconverted try. A confident Harlow were now playing a large proportion of the game in the visitors half and on 58 minutes a good solo break by Dobson from about 15 yards out wrong footed the defence to give him a try close to the posts which he easily converted taking the score to 31 points to 10. Harlow continued to dominate until 5 minutes from the end when Claridge was yellow carded for what was considered to be a dangerous tackle. Ipswich threw everything into the last few minutes of the game but the Harlow defence held out well to preserve their lead and finish with no further score.

This Saturday Harlow are away against Mersea Island, the bottom club in the league and as yet without a win. If Harlow can take the points in this game, preferably by a good margin it will consolidate their position for the remainder of the first half of the league season. After this the clubs they have to play the clubs in first, second and fourth place in the table and it will be difficult to take points from them, which highlights the importance of the Mersea Island game. It will however need a major effort on Saturday against an opposition who desperately need to lift their game and will pull out all stops.

Tries:

Paul Prindiville, Paul Eynon, Darren Hawkins, Lee Harron, Michael Dobson

Conversions:  Michael Dobson (3)

Penalties:

Team List

1 -  Paul Prindiville

2 -  Scott Romaine (Captain)
3 -  Matt Branch (Sub Marc Williams 55 mins)

4 -  Darren Hawkins  

5 -  Mark Twiner (Sub Paul Eynon 15 mins)
6 -  Shaun Roberts 
7 -  Mark Bowering 

8 -  Kain Claridge
9 -  Lee Harron
10 - Michael Dobson

11 - Will Grimley
12 - James McFerran
13 - Luke Bowering  

14 - Rob Mackie (Sub Simon Vanbeck 65 mins)
15 - Francis Brown  

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