Harlow 4th XV 10 Romford 4th XV 34

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This match was taken a short notice due to the fact that Black Horse who we were supposed to be playing pulled out due to injuries.

Everyone arrived roughly on time, well 4th team time which can be anywhere between 15 mins early to 15 past the time as organised, we knew this was not going to be an easy match as Romford always put out a strong team. Prior to the game Swampy showed everyone his new studs which increased his height greatly, Chris brought in an ex army gas mask which was duly tried on by a few people, Some quite liked it if you know what i mean, sometimes things are a bit weird in the 4th team changing rooms. Prior to the game we learnt that Tony Hills was our ref, So we were told by Gaggy in no uncertain terms to keep our mouths shut today, (we should do this every game). During the warm up, Phil Hirst suffered an injury to his knee ruling him out of the game, we must learn to play nicely with the other kids.
for the first 10 minutes of the game we played hard & managed to keep the score at nil nil, but in the next ten minutes Romford managed to cross our line 3 times converting one of tries, Harlow battled on seeing us go into the Romford 22 on several occasions, on one of these we were awarded a penalty, Gaggy (C) opted to take a set ball piece, he passed to Jeff (Auntie) who crashed over the line to score a try, this was unfortunately not converted, but it gave the Harlow team some hope & we managed to not concede any more points in the first half.

Half Time Harlow 5 Romford 17
Almost straight away from the kick Romford scored under the posts , they scored two more through good back play & some slightly illegal handling on the floor at the ruck, which when spotted by the ref was penalised, this soon started to niggle the Romford Pack who started to answer back AKA Gob off, the Harlow team kept their cool for the most part, although Pete did get to use his handbag at one point, Gaggy scored when after not retreating ten the Romford pack were caught napping when he did a quick tap & go on his own to go over all the way from the 22, Auntie was unlucky not to have a second try, when from the back of a ruck the ball came out, where he picked it up, went past one player, chipped it over the Romford line & chased the ball to ten metres from the Romford line, it bounced awkwardly for the Romford Winger who tried to jump on it & failed, Auntie tapped it forward over the line & was piped at the post by the covering Fullback who pushed it out of play. Harlow kept playing on & with the Romford teams ill discipline we managed to hold them at bay.

Final score Harlow 10 Romford 34

some important lessons this week, one being that we must tackle low & two we should not go for the forward dominated game when we have good backs that we should use. Some great tackling by Swampy as always, Gaggy leading by example, he was everywhere, New Guy Darryl who for a little guy made some big hits. after the game having a small beverage in the club house, Some of the Romford guys were saying how it made a nice change from playing 2nd team Rugby this week.

Scorers Jeff (Auntie) Bessent, John (Gaggy) Gagg

Man of the match Ben pf AKA Wing co & Paul (Slider) Crabb

COTM Unknown

Players : the usual suspects Plus Darryl (New Guy)

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