Harlow 2nd XV 31 Thurrock 2nd XV 20

Merit Table

Harlow made it 5 wins out of 5 in this bruising encounter at Rams Gorse on Saturday emerging deserved winners 31-20 against a team they haven’t beaten for two and a half years.

It was the first time that Harlow had come across a team that plays the same style of open rugby as them this season but they rose to challenge finding their back three of Ward, Webb and Phillips in excellent form.  The plaudits for the match however must go to Winger Steve Ward who carried on his impressive strike rate making it 5 from 3 matches with a well taken hat-trick.

Harlow’s preparations for this match were spot on and it wa sno wonder they started the brighter of the two sides exerting good pressure in Thurrock’s 22.  With Harlow pressing Thurrock constantly they found it increasingly difficult to clear their line.  A misplaced clearence kick from Thurrock’s fly-half was collected by Harlow’s Alasdair Phillips deep inside his own half.  Running into space he managed to break through 3 tackles before finding winger Steve Ward in support to run in from 25 metres out to score his first of the day for Harlow to lead 5-0.

Harlow maintained the pressure straight from the restart and were soon rewarded.  The ball was passed out to Inside Centre Lee Hodges who done a miss pass behind Outside centre Wayne Heapy  to find Flanker Ricky McKinley joining the backs line creating the overlap.  A well- timed pass by McKinley found winger Chris Webb to run in to score Harlow’s second to lead 10-0.

Thurrock upped their game soon after stretching Harlow’s defence.  Good communication and organisation in defence saw that Harlow’s defence hold firm until the last 5 minutes where a quick tap penalty saw Thurrock score out wide.  An excellent conversion by Thurrock’s fly-half and a quick penalty saw them tie the score 10-10 at half time.

At the start of the second half it was Thurrock who managed to get the quick score.  A scrum was set just inside Harlow’s 22 and a quick ball out to their inside centre saw him break through the Harlow line to score under the posts to race into a 10-17 lead. 

Harlow dug deep however and an error from Thurrock who stopped playing when the referee gave Harlow the advantage saw the influential Vanston keep running to jink past a defender to score under the posts.  Fly-half Ian Bate made no mistake from the resulting conversion to tie the score.  

This opened the game up with both teams playing cavalier attacking rugby both coming close to scoring in the initial exchanges it was from one of these Thurrock attacks that Harlow got their 4^th try.  With Thurrock’s full back joining the attacking line Harlow quickly turnt over the ball from a Thurrock ruck when the ball was passed out to Lee Hodges who spotting the gap behind the defence kicked downfield. Heapy and Webb chased the ball down putting pressure on the Thurrock winger who spilt the ball.  A further kick down field saw Ward the first to react coming in off of his line to dive onto the ball for his second again the conversion by Bate saw Harlow lead for the second time 24-17. 

A quick penalty soon after by Thurrock saw them set up a nervy finish 24-20 before Ward settled the nerves after a brilliant piece of rugby by Vanston saw Ward cut inside to shrug off his defender and race through to complete his hat-trick.  A conversion by Bate saw Harlow earn a two score lead to win 31-20 despite a late Thurrock surge.

Team:  Williams (Fitz), Stonehouse, Branch, J.Hodges, Palmer, Delgrecco (Clarke), McKinley, Roberts (capt), Kent Pope (L.Hodges), Bate, Webb, Heapy, Vanston, Phillips.

Tries: Ward (3), Webb, Vanton

Conversions: Bate (3)

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