Hitchin 4th XV 12 Harlow 4th XV 48

Cup 

Harlow 4th's away to Hitchin in the cup

Harlow met up early, well early for us anyway & we left for Hitchin, arrived in good time& got changed in 3 changing rooms & warned up, the q & a before the match with the ref was good as we knew exactly what we were getting, a no nonsense ref who didn't mind a physical game should we say, i.e. if they're not moving out of the way encourage them (Mexican hat dance) & if not then move them (Pull them out) , oh how we laughed &Weddy wasn't even playing, he would have loved it. I think he is a bit obsessed with shoes.

From the off Harlow were up for this one as last season the Hitchin team mucked us about in this fixture & we lost to them so today was going to be payback. From the off the Hitchin pack could not compete with the shear physicality of the Harlow scrum, with us winning virtually every scrum on ours or their put in. We opened up our account after about 10 mins when from a kick forward Harlow  backs  Grey (12) & Crabb (15) chased the ball down putting the Fullback under pressure & again chipping it forward for Crabby to smother it & score 5-0, shortly after this with the forwards dominating the other pack, Mumbles again found himself chasing a great kick from Rob (Had the time of life) Mathews who was getting good ball from his dance partner Justin Dirty Dancing) Evans Again chased it into the Hitchin scoring zone to crash on it & score, this was converted by Crabb 12-0

Not long after this at a ruck Auntie was a bit peeved as he was being pulled out of the ruck through the Hitchin line by a Hitchin player by his scrum hat, the only problem was that Andy Stallamn was lying on top of auntie at the time so for a while they were pulling & auntie was not moving, after he was finally released,  auntie got up & raised his voice in disgust, you had to be there, Mex said it was like Joe pasquale playing at number 8 !. Oh how we laughed later at Auntie, not for the only time that day, more later.

Mumbles (Grey) was up next with another great move again via the forwards getting possession, Mex stole the ball at the breakdown putting Hitchin on the back foot & from there the ball was spun out to Mumbles who scored from the 22 to cross the line. 17-0

Crabby found the try line again when he broke through the Hitchin defence & was sure to score when a Hitchin player made a reckless tackle & very high resulting in a penalty try, this should go down as Crabbys as he would have scored anyway & converted by Crabby 24 -0

Half Time Harlow 24- 0 Hitchin

The Harlow teams were expecting the player concerned to be sin binned at the least but he was not & the ref said it was an impulse move an Accident, so after chasing for 10 metres he made an impulse move to high tackle slow motor neurons then.

Gaggy (C) told us all to be quiet , not quite the words used but you get the idea, which we did & got on with the game, Shortly after kick off Rob Spinks was on the end of a great backs move where the ball moved quickly out & found himself in space to hand off the winger &  score in the corner 29-0, by now Hitchin had used all of their subs because the sheer physicality of the Harlow pack & backs tackling was taking their toll, none of these were tactical subs but due to injuries either from making or being tackled. Some subs by Harlow were made but ours was tactical as discussed prior to the game. Next over the line was Crabby again for his 3^rd try of the day,  which was converted ,36-0

 Hitchin managed to score when their centre saw a gap & managed to squeeze through between a couple of forwards who were never going to catch him, although auntie did try, oh how we laughed at auntie again as he lay there trying to breath. More to follow about auntie the best is still to come.36-7

Heads back on & back to the method of forwards get ball, keep ball, make platform give to backs & try this time  though it was Chris the prop  turn to go over the line from broken play, where he picked up 15 meters out & no one was going to stop him from scoring 41-7.

For a bit of fun, Gaggy did a short cross kick for Fitzy (3) who very nearly scored from it, but it shocked the hitching fullback who was not having a good day at the office.

Not long after this auntie moved to from 8 to 4 & that's where his troubles started really, after all he is naturally a back, at the scrum on the 22 Harlow drove the hitchin pack back to the 5 metre line, but auntie though it was the try line so picked it up & set it down for a try, he was trying to get the refs attention whilst stopping the Hitching no8 from picking up the ball, when gaggy pointed out to him it was the wrong line, oh how we laughed at auntie & haven't really stopped since.

Shortly after the' where's the line incident' Auntie received a kick to the head from the opposition who was off side at the ruck & alledgedly going for the ball, interesting, it was time for auntie to rest.

Hitchin managed to sneak another one past us but it was not converted with 5 mins to go.41-12

Harlow answered back with a crabby flying through the hitchin line to be yanked back by the collar by the same player as before, very slow responses he has. Crabby managed to get the ball down & score & added insult to the possible injury by converting.

Final score Harlow 48 Hitchin 12

Harlow

Tries

Crabb 4 & 4 Conv

Grey 2

Spinks 1

Power 1

MOTM Ben who played well & managed to break the oppositions shin guard after missing the ball & kicking their shin

COTM Auntie for Various reasons not all mentioned

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