Harlow 3 Romford & Gidea Park 38 

London League Division Two North East

12 February 2011

Harlow were at home to the third placed team in the league, Romford and Gidea Park, on Saturday. Based on the form book it was a game which they could not really expect a win and if taken in comparison with their recent results against some of the lower placed clubs they can take some satisfaction from a spirited performance which contained the score line to a lower margin than it might have been. The deciding factor was that man for man Romford were fitter and significantly faster than the Harlow squad. In some positions Harlow were able to match them on speed strength and skill but Romford had ability in all positions.

The game started with Romford playing up the slope and they quickly took play deep into the Harlow half after about Five minutes they broke clear and ran the ball 25 metres to the try line. Fullback Rob Mackie made a very good attempt to tackle the ball carrier and swing him back over the line but he managed to ground the ball close to the posts. The real damage however was done when two players missed the ball carrier 10 metres out. A simple conversion gave the visitors a seven - nil lead. For the next 25 minutes Harlow spent most of their time if defending therefore when they forced their way downfield Dobson was able to slot a penalty reducing the margin to seven points to three. In the final 10 minutes of the first half Harlow made two or three quite good breaks including one where Rob Mackie came into the line to make the extra man and an was only stopped by the final defensive tackle about 12 metres short of the line. It looked as if Harlow were going to come out of the first half in quite a good position but unfortunately poor defending allowed Romford to run in a try a near the corner giving them a 12 points to 3 margin at the interval.

Harlow’s hopes of getting back into the game was shattered 4 minutes into the second half when another breakaway try and conversion from Romford extended their lead. For the next 25 minutes Harlow defended quite well for most of the time and on several occasions if that produced forward drives which took them deep into the Romford half. They were up against a well organised defence however and on one occasion a counterattack lead to a further try Romford. In the final 10 minutes combination of fatigue resulting from so much defensive tackling and the fact that several players were carrying minor injuries exposed further gaps in the Harlow defence allowing Romford to run in two tries in the final stages of the game.

Tries:

Conversions:  

Penalties: Michael Dobson

Team List

1 -  Danny Lane

2 -  Scott Romaine

3 -  Matt Branch (Sub Martin Cunningham 45 mins)

4 -  Kerry Palmer

5 -  Darren Hawkins

6 -  Mark Bowering

7 -  Marc Barr

8 -  Paul Eynon

9 -  Charlie Woodington

10 - Michael Dobson (Sub Josh Drake 70 mins)

11 - Chris Webb (Sub Will Grimley 55 mins)
12 - Luke Bowering
13 - Rhys Powell

14 - Chris Bates

15 - Rob Mackie

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