London and South East  Division 1.  Harlow   5    London Nigerians 60.

The Rams added another player to their injury list in the first two minutes of this game At Ram Gorse when flanker Luke King had to retire with a suspected fractured skull.

The home side had an uphill struggle from the first Nigerians score in the tenth minute.A poor kick out of defence which failed to find touch was brought back with a vengeance and the visiting backs exploited Harlow’s poor defensive marking whenever their pack gained possession. The situation worsened when outside centre Wayne Morgan left the field with a shoulder injury but by then London Nigerians were leading by 23-0.

Harlow did work their way up to the Nigerians twenty two through their forwards but couldn’t cross the gain line and a sloppy pass was intercepted to allow the Nigerian winger to score a fourth try before half time to give them an interval lead of 28-0.

Within minutes it was Morgan’s turn to retire and James Grover came on in the back row Lakin moving into the centre.

From a quickly taken tap penalty the Nigerians number 8 scored a well deserved try and Harlow went back to mount a three phase attack which ended when Jarvis and then McMullen passed the ball on to Alasdair Phillips whose strong run enabled him to score Harlow’s consolation try.

Poor tackling and naïve defence allowed the visitors to score four more tries of which only one was converted to seal their victory against a Harlow side lacking in ideas and struggling to find fifteen fit players.

Harlow First XV. Prindiville, Mallia, Ephgrave, Eynon, Nutt, King (Sub. Lakin 5 min.), Keeling, Snow, Jarvis (Capt), Brown, McMullen, Morgan (Sub. Grover 42min.), Stanley, (Sub.Romaine 74 min.), McClarnon, Phillips.

To view more match reports - click here