Harlow 0 Canvey Island 36

London League Division Two North East

2nd October 2010

Harlow lost heavily to a fit and mobile Canvey Island side on Saturday. Quick glance at the league table shows that the result is not unexpected. Canvey he had already beaten Old Streetonians by a 29 point margin as compared to with three points defeat when Harlow played them. More important Canvey, although losing, had produced close hard fought contests against the top two clubs in the division, Romford and Rochford. Even at full strength, the form book indicated a tough game for Harlow and as it happened they faced the Islanders with a number of key players missing.

In the first half when playing down the slope Harlow had a good proportion of the territory particularly in the first quarter. It became clear however that the Canvey defence was going to be strong and that they had both mobile backs and a powerful pack who would give them an advantage in the set scrums and to a reasonable extent in rucks and mauls. In the line-outs with several key players missing, Harlow did not get the advantage they normally do from what is a strong aspect of their play. For most of the half it was a close fought contest which did not indicate what was to come. Dobson had two shots at goal from penalties, both from long distance but they narrowly missed. On around 30 minutes Canvey put a kick deep into the Harlow 22 and close to the touch line. The Harlow defender hesitated before clearing and was forced to push the ball into touch on the Harlow five metre line. Canvey won the line out set up the maul and crashed through for a converted try. Just on half time they slotted a penalty from in front of the Harlow posts and the half ended with Canvey holding on to their 10point lead but with Harlow still apparently in with a chance.

In the second half Canvey started much harder and faster and for the first 15 minutes although Harlow kept them away from their try line it was only as a result of a lot of very hard tackling. The Harlow flankers, Shaun Roberts and Mark Bowering both playing a major defensive role. A breakaway by the visitors finally found the gap and they went through for an unconverted try taking their score to 15 points to nil. As the game progressed the fatigue of the Harlow players who had been forced to defend so heavily started to tell and Canvey were able to break through and put pressure on the Harlow line almost them well. Three converted tries in the last quarter took the score to 36 points to nil at full time.

This weekend Harlow are away to Chelmsford and then their next league game is against Beccles. Both of these clubs share the lower portion of the league table with Harlow and if the Rams are going to get away from the danger zone then they must take points from them. A lot will depend on player availability and the extent to which they can put last Saturday's game behind them and commit themselves to the task in hand.

Tries:

Conversions:  

Penalties:

Team List

1 - Martin Cunningham (Sub Danny Lane 60 mins)
2 - Dan Bolt -
3 - Paul Prindiville
4 - Rob Treamer - (Sub Kerry Palmer 65 mins)
5 - Darren Hawkins
6 - Shaun Roberts
7 - Mark Bowering
8 - Kain Claridge
9 - Charlier Woodington
10 - Micheal Dobson (Sub Lewis Alderman 65 mins)
11 - Chris Bates
12 - Simon Vanbeck
13 - Luke Bowering
14 - Rob Mackie
15 - Sean Banks

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