Harlow 12 Norwich 6

London League Division Three North East

8th October 2012

Harlow continued their undefeated run of league matches on Saturday with a very exciting contest against Norwich. Although the winning margin was only six points they can take a lot of satisfaction from the fact that they put in two good tries and that, despite a lot of pressure from the visitors, their tackling was solid and their try line was not crossed. In the absence of the injured Rhys Powell senior coach Lee Harron made a return to the side at scrum half. He had a good game making several interesting breaks and linking very well with fellow veteran Paul Eynon at No.8. More important however, throughout the game,as always, he hassled the Norwich scrum half. This result leaves Harlow in second place in the league behind Holt who have the better points difference. This weekend the Harlow team will not be playing as they have a bye in the preliminary round of the RFU Senior Vase before the following Saturday they are away to Holt in the showdown between the only two undefeated sides in the league. There is very little to choose between these two sides in terms of performance so far and a very close contest is expected. With Holt having the home advantage Harlow will have to pull out all stops to maintain their record. Harlow can however take a lot of pride in the start they have made to the league season with five wins for second place including wins over the third or fourth and fifth teams in the league.

On Saturday Harlow started well taking play into the Norwich half and although the ball was strongly contested in the opening minutes they continued to have the better of the territory. The breakthrough came on seven minutes with a beautifully executed set move by Harlow. They won the ball cleanly and fly half Dobson distributed to his backs. Fullback Rob Mackie came into the line midfield at absolute full speed taking the ball and splitting the Norwich defence before committing the fullback and offloading an excellent pass to Vernez Kotze on the wing who ran in for the try. Dobson was on target with the conversion for a seven nil lead. Harlow continued to contest strongly and had the best of the territory. On two occasions they came very close to a breakout following good number eight pick up moves by Eynon. On 20 minutes Norwich cut the margin with a well taken penalty, and an attempted response by Dobson narrowly missed the nearside post. At this stage despite pressure from Norwich solid tackling by Harlow gave them the edge for most of the time. Close to half time Harron intercepted are Norwich ball and sprinted 50 yards before he was cut off by their fullback and the teams turned around with Harlow leading seven points to three.

As they went into the second half both teams played with great commitment. Throughout the game however they had been like rain and the wet ball was extremely difficult to handle leading to the breakdown of a number of promising moves by both teams. A quarter of an hour into the half Norwich closed the margin to 1 point with a well taken penalty. Seeing the chance of victory for the next few minutes they pressured the Harlow try line very strongly but excellent tackling by Harlow kept them at bay. Pressure was relieved with another 60 yard sprint from Lee Harron following an interception of a Norwich pass. For a moment it looked as though he may make the try line but the visitors' fullback managed to cut him off about 15 yards short. Having got into the Norwich 22 Harlow kept the ball tight playing the rucking game and after about five minutes from a ruck eight metres short of the try line number eight Eynon picked up and drove through forcing back two players to touch down for the try. The conversion was missed in the difficult conditions but the 6point to 12 margin slightly relieved the pressure. At this stage with quarter of an hour to go Harlow skipper Roberts decided to commit his replacements in the hope that fresh legs would give them a slight advantage. As the clock ran down most of the play was midfield but with a five minutes left Norwich came their closest to stealing the result. They won the ball midfield and shipped it out to their wing who sprinted for the try line. Although he had 50 yards to go the Harlow defense was out of position. However fullback Rob Mackie and Eynon both saw the danger and cut across at full pace taking the attacker out about 10 metres short of the line. From the restart Harlow secured the ball and a good clearance kick by Dobson took them downfield where they were able to run the clock down and secure the victory.
 

Tries: Wernez Kotze, Paul Eynon

Conversions:  Michael Dobson

Penalties:

As it happened:

1st Half
7 Mins Try Werner Kotze Harlow 5-0 Successfully converted by Micheal Dobson 7-0
Micheal Dobson missed 2 penalties
20 Mins successful penalty Norwich 7-3
30 Mins Micheal Dobson missed penalty
 
Half Time
57 Mins Successful penalty Norwich 7-6
64 Mins Try Paul Eynon 12-6 Conversion missed
65 Mins Simon Vanbeck was replaced by Wayne Heapy Kerry Palmer was replaced by Darren Hawkins
70 Mins Danny Stonehouse was replaced by Paul Prindiville

Team List

1 -  David Roze

2 -  Stuart Wilkins

3 -  Danny Stonehouse (sub Paul Prindiville 70 mins)

4 -  Mark Twiner

5 -  Kerry Palmer (Sub Darren Hawkins 65 mins)

6 -  Shaun Roberts (Capt)

7 -  Mark Bowering

8 -  Paul Eynon

9 -  Lee Harron

10 - Michael Dobson

11 - Wernez Kotze
12 - Simon Vanbeck (Sub Wayne Heapy 65 mins)
13 - Luke Bowering

14 - Will Grimley

15 - Rob Mackie

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