Harlow 34 Upminster 15

London League Division Three North East

19th November 2011

Harlow continued their league challenge on Saturday with a good win over mid-table Upminster. After a number of games where the score was too close for comfort and the victory was only secured in the closing stages, they can be pleased with a game where they took a significant lead and stayed safely ahead throughout the match. There was a period at the start of the final quarter when Upminster narrowed the margin but Harlow had a two score advantage throughout. Harlow again secured the bonus point with the winning try count of 6 to 2 and can be pleased with the quality of the tries from both forwards and backs. Next Saturday they take a break from their league challenge to travel south of the river to play Maidstone in the third round of the Senior Vase. Then on the 3rd of December they will be at home to Campion in the league. This match will be preceded by the annual former players’ lunch and therefore the team can count on some excellent support from the touchline.

For the first quarter of an hour the game was fought very closely midfield. It quickly became clear that the visitors had some pace in their backs and a lot was going to depend upon the quality of the Harlow tackling. Harlow were able to break down several Upminster attacks and keep play mostly in the visitors half but could not find the final gap. Then on 17 minutes good loose play by the Harlow forwards secured the ball which was offloaded to the backs. Rob Mackie, playing on the wing, chipped for the corner and out-sprinted the Upminster defender to touch down for an unconverted try. Six minutes later the Harlow pack setup a good rolling maul deep in the Upminster half. They forced their way towards the try line and prop Danny Stonehouse took the ball and bored in to get the touchdown giving Harlow a 10 – 0 lead. Harlow continued to apply a pressure and thanks to some accurate tactical kicking by Dobson kept a large proportion of play well into the Upminster half. On the half hour they produced one of the quality tries of the match. The forward secured the ball midfield Harron and Dobson linked up well to launch the backs, Wernez Kotze came in from his wing and created the extra man midfield to split the defence wide open and touch down close to the posts. Dobson slotted the conversion for a seventeen nil lead. In the final 10 minutes of the half Upminster had two scoring opportunities when Harlow were penalised first for not rolling away at the ruck and then for coming in at the side. Both kicks missed however and on the very point of halftime an excellent grubber kick around the corner towards the corner flag by Kotze which he followed up to score his second try. Although the kick was out wide Dobson put it through the posts and Harlow went into the interval with a 24 points to nil lead.

From the restart Harlow took the ball cleanly but as they attempted to launch their backs were penalised for crossing. The visitors slotted the penalty to get onto the score board. Ten minutes into the half Harlow produced another real quality try. From a good scrum where Upminster were being driven back Paul Eynon, playing at number eight, picked up the ball and made a good break before offloading to the backs. It was passed wide before fullback Aled Hills came in to make the extra man and took the inside pass and touched down for the try. Harlow now had a 29 points to 3 lead and appeared to be in full control. Between 65 and 68 minutes Upminster got themselves back into the game with two tries the first of them converted. Both originated from good running play by their backs and on both occasions the Harlow tackling was less decisive than it had been up to that point. With 12 minutes to go Harlow concentrated on forward pressure inside the Upminster 22. Tactically it was a sound policy as their forwards had the edge in broken play throughout the game. Within a minute a fulltime a series of excellent rucks by Harlow took them close to the line. They used the drive and hit strategy several times before Michael Dobson realized that they had committed too many players. He came in at pace calling for the ball to take the pass cleanly and crashed over to touch down for the try. The conversion missed but the game ended a minute later with a win for Harlow by 34 points to 15.

Holt are still top of the table with Harlow four points behind in second and Norwich are also keeping up their challenge. A new development however is the challenge of Stowmarket who have been winning matches by very large margins and could take over if any of the other leading club slip.

Opposition Report:

Will appear here in due course: Upminster Site

As it happened:

17 mins: Try Harlow Mackie (14) good forward work of which the ball was off loaded to the backs with good hands. Conversion was too low and missed by Dobson (10) 5-0
23 mins: Try Harlow Stonehouse (3) from a rolling Maul. Conversion Missed to short Dobson (10) 10-0
29 mins: Try Harlow Kotze (11) from a moving scrum good hands from backs found space and ran through attempted to Swallow dive 15. Conversion successful Dobson (10) 17-0
33 mins: Upminster (9) Missed Penalty due to Harlow player not rolling away
36 mins: Upminster (9) Missed penalty due to Harlow Player coming in from side
40 mins: Try Harlow Kotze (11) from a chip kick. Conversion successful Dobson (10) 24-0

Half time

41 mins: Upminster (9) successful penalty due to Harlow crossing at the kick off 24-3
55 mins: Palmer replaced Hawkins Tactical
61 mins: Try Harlow Hills (15) moving scrum, pick up by Eynon, good hands by the backs. Conversion missed Dobson (10) too short 29-3
65 mins: Upminster (2) Try. Conversion successful (9) 29-10
68 mins: Upminster (9) Try. Conversion missed (9) 29-15
70 mins: Prindiville replaced Stonehouse Tactical
78 mins: Milne replaced Harron Tactical
80 mins : Harlow Try Dobson (10) from good rucking and defensive work. Conversion missed Dobson (10) 34-15

Final Score: Harlow 34- 15 Upminster

Tries: Rob Mackie, Wernez Kotze (2), Danny Stonehouse, Aled Hills, Micheal Dobson

Conversions:  Micheal Dobson (2)

Penalties:

Team List

1 -  Martin Cunningham

2 -  Martin Mallia

3 -  Danny Stonehouse (Sub Paul Prindiville 70 mins)

4 -  Mark Twiner

5 -  Darren Hawkins (Sub Kerry Palmer 55 mins)

6 -  Shaun Roberts

7 -  Mark Bowering

8 -  Paul Eynon

9 -  Lee Harron (Sub Alex Milne 78 mins)

10 - Micheal Dobson

11 - Wernez Kotze
12 - Wayne Heapy
13 - Luke Bowering

14 - Rob Mackie

15 - Aled Hills

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