Witham 2nd XV 3 Harlow 2nd XV 68

Harlow 2^nd  XV thoroughly outplayed their counterparts in every aspect of the game on Saturday as they demolished them 12 tries to nil.  The backs were superb throughout scoring 10 of the 12 tries.

Throughout this season Harlow have shown glimpses of the talent in their team but have rarely displayed it for the whole 80mins of a match, they did this emphatically on Saturday with every player outstanding although centre turned winger Ian Rundall will take most of the plaudits for his clinical finishing scoring an impressive 31 points including a staggering 5 tries.  Special mention must also go to Chris Webb who has improved with every game and cemented his place in the second team in only his first season of playing.  Another player who has also impressed is Ben Branch who has also vastly improved this year and was on Saturday yet again the cornerstone of the scrum allowing Harlow the opportunity to get clean ball out to the backs who done the damage.

Against a much more experienced pack the forwards played excellently crashing the ball up field and sucking in Witham defenders.  With a secure platform to work from it allowed scrum-half Jake Kent-Pope to get good ball out to the backs who then showed great hands moving the ball out wide for Harlow’s pacey back three of Rundall, Webb and Phillips to do what they do best, score tries. 

In the first half Harlow enjoyed most of the possession keeping the ball alive in and around the contact area and always looked like they were going to score Webb duly obliged running in out wide after a clever pass from centre Stradling put him through 0-5.  Witham with a big punt down field saw a rather lucky knock – on from a Harlow player give them a scrum inside Harlow’s 22.  An infringement soon after gave Witham the opportunity to go for the posts which their fly-half slotted through to make the score 3-5.  After that it was pretty much one-way traffic with Harlow camped in Witham’s half for the remainder.  A nice break from Webb and a chip over the top collected by Colt Kane Claridge, who showed good pace to run in under the posts for Harlow’s second.  Conversion by Rundall 3-12. Quick tries by Phillips and two by Rundall saw Harlow take in a 3-31 lead at half time. 

Full credit to Witham despite being outplayed they stuck to their task diligently and never let their heads drop defended through the middle well but just could not match the pace of Harlow’s backs.  As the half wore on Witham’s defence started to tire and allowed Rundall to go over for 3 more tries along with Kane Claridge and Phillips for their second tries as well as fly-half Nick Ford marking his comeback from injury with a well taken brace to complete the rout final score 3-68.

Team: Branch, Wilkins, Clarke, J.Hodges (L.Hodges), Summers, Claridge, Roberts (Capt), Paine, Kent-Pope, Ford, Webb, straddling, Stanley, Rundall, Phillips.

Tries: Rundall (5), Claridge (2), Ford (2), Phillips (2), Webb.

Conversions: Rundall (3) Ford

To view more match reports - click here