Harlow 14 Newmarket 5

London League Division Three North East

14th January 2012

Harlow recorded an important win in a closely contested contest with Newmarket on Saturday.  In the away leg of this fixture the contest was equally close and at that time Harlow formed the opinion that they were a much better side than their bottom of table position implied.  The game on Saturday only served to reinforce that opinion.  It was closely contested throughout  and although Harlow attacked strongly for most of the time they found the Newmarket defence very hard to break.  It was only in the second half that two very well constructed tries allowed Harlow to take hold of the game and that two good long range conversions provided an important safety margin.  Even then Newmarket were able to set up an excellent try of their own to keep up the pressure.  From a Harlow point of view there were two good features of the game, they kept their penalty count much lower than in recent matches and their commitment in the tackle was also much better.  In a game this close this was essential in securing the victory.
 
Newmarket started strongly and in the opening minutes the majority of the play was in the Harlow half.  The visitors had a penalty opportunity on seven minutes and although the accuracy was good it did not carry.  As the half progressed Harlow moved more on to the attack concentrating their efforts on attempting to break the Newmarket defence midfield.  However they ran into a very good pair of centres reinforced by their back row players and it proved very difficult to break through.  About half an hour into the half Dobson attempted to break the deadlock with a drop goal attempts; it came so close that initially most spectators thought it was over but in fact it just failed to clear the bar.  In the closing minutes of the half Harlow had two good attacking opportunities using the rolling maul from the line outs inside the Newmarket 22.  On both occasions however the visitors defence was good and eventually they were able to clear downfield with accurately placed kicks.  A further good attacking opportunity from the forwards was broken down when Harlow conceded a penalty allowing Newmarket to take play well downfield where it stayed for the last few minutes of the half which ended with no score.
 
Harlow started the second half strongly playing with the slope in their favour and after 5 minutes produced a quality try to take the lead.  From a scrum out wide I Eynon, playing at number eight, picked up and made a short break committing the Newmarket back row.  He offloaded to scrum half Rhys Powell who was standing off and who then provided a perfectly timed pass to Wernez Kotze the Harlow Winger who came in at absolutely full speed to take the ball and split the defence wide open.  He crossed the try line and was able to move infield a few yards before touching down for the score.  Dobson put the conversion cleanly between the posts for a seven points to nil lead.  For the next quarter of an hour Harlow maintained most of the pressure but were unable to break the defence.  Dobson came close with one penalty attempt which hit the upright dropped back and hit the crossbar before bouncing back into the field of play.  Then at the end of the third quarter Newmarket found themselves on the attack midfield.  The Harlow defence had drifted in to cover the move leaving a gap out towards the wing.  The Newmarket fly half put in a superb a high kick to the corner which bounced perfectly for their winger coming through at pace to touch down for the try.  The conversion attempt was online but did not have the distance.  With their lead however reduced to only two points if Harlow faced a tense period of play.  The breakthrough came when they had a line-out deep inside the Newmarket 22.  Darren Hawkins who had had a very good game throughout took the throw cleanly and Harlow setup a rolling maul from which Eynon crashed through to touch down for the try.  Dobson’s conversion was spot on taking the score to 14 points to five if.  More importantly it meant that Newmarket would need two scores to steal the game.  In the closing stages Harlow kept up the pressure and at one stage looked as if they he were going to break through when Alex Milne made a superb run down the wing, chipped through and followed up his kick but Newmarket just managed to scramble it into touch and held out for the final couple of minutes. 
 
Harlow First Team have a break this weekend before they then face what are probably their two most demanding fixtures.  They are away to Norwich on the 28th of January and then a week later at home to Holt the league leaders.  These two clubs are both very strong promotion contenders and although Harlow are securely placed in second place in the league, if they are to keep up their challenge they must come back with some points from these fixtures.

As it happened

7 mins Newmarket P missed

27 mins DG by Micheal Dobson (10) missed

37 Mins Luke Bowering (16) replaced Shaun Roberts (6)

Half time 0-0

45 mins Harlow Try Werner Kotze (11) from a good pass from Rhys Powell (9) Conversion successful by Micheal Dobson (10) 7-0

53 mins Harlow P Micheal Dobson (10) due to Newmarket being offside, Unfortunately Missed as the ball hit the uprights bounced off the cross bar and bounced back into play

54 mins Alex Milnes (17) replaced Mark Goggins (13) due to severe concussion

57 Mins Newmarket Try conversion missed 7-5

64 Martin Cunningham (18) replaced Martin Mallia (2) due to injury

71 mins Harlow Try from a winning line out into a rolling maul for Paul Eynon (8) to crash over the try line Conversion Successful Micheal Dobson (10) 14-5

83 mins Harlow P missed by Micheal Dobson Final score 14-5

Tries: Wernez Kotze, Paul Eynon

Conversions:  Michael Dobson (2)

Penalties:

Team List

1 -  David Roze

2 -  Martin Mallia (Sub Martin Cunningham 64 mins)

3 -  Paul Prindiville

4 -  Mark Twiner

5 -  Darren Hawkins

6 -  Shaun Roberts (Sub Luke Bowering 37 mins)

7 -  Mark Bowering

8 -  Paul Eynon

9 -  Rhys Powell

10 - Michael Dobson

11 - Josh Drake
12 - Wayne Heapy
13 - Mark Goggins (Sub Alex Milne 54 mins)

14 - Wernez Kotze

15 - Rob Mackie

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