Upper Clapton 11 Harlow 7

Merit Table

After a minutes silence, the game kicked off with Harlow playing with the wind behind them.  Conditions were great with freezing torrential rain and a nice stiff breeze/gale.  For some reason the 4^th team did not click straight away, there were a lot of handling errors due to the slippery, no-grip match ball, which we changed as soon as possible. Harlow and Upper Clapton were fairly evenly matched although they were missing some of their regular players.  The first 2 scrums were contested before the prop went off injured as per the script and uncontested scrums with no back row pick-ups started.  First blood to Clapton, they elected to kick a penalty near to the posts.  Harlow then started to get fired up, the game was not pretty to watch with lots of mauls, rucks, scrums and knock-ons from both sides.  Clapton scored when their fly half created an overlap with a simple backs move.  8-0 at half time, several changes were made as people had work and other commitments to go to.  The second half was a different kettle of fish, from the kick off (with only 14 players on the pitch) Harlow stepped up a gear, Justin at scrum half getting the ball out to the backs who were doing what they could in the great weather conditions. The ball coming to the scrum half was not up to its usual quality, we need to practise this so that he has something to work with. The Harlow try came with a huge lump of luck, a sliced kick across the pitch which did not find touch, saw the winger kick past his opposite number and head for the corner, another kick saw him clean through.  The “accidental “ trip which resulted in a penalty try gave Harlow a try and conversion, as it was accidental there was no need for a 10 minute rest for the offending player, even though in the first half, Darren received a 10 minute breather for removing a Clapton player from an offside position.  Rob Matthews chipped over the defensive line and collected a lovely bounce to power through only to be stopped by the covering back line.

Discipline began to become a problem, a lack of consistency in the refereeing decisions began to affect the players, Swampy gave us some concise advice about “shutting the **** up”.  The Clapton tactic for the whole second half was, give it to the fly half and boot it down the pitch, problem was, it was quite effective. The play that really affected the game was when the Harlow backs moved it out through the hands, Mumbles breaking through supported by Crabby, interplay between them saw Crabby clean through for a try.  The referee adjudged a forward pass from where he was standing, pretty much the whole pitch was stunned, including the Clapton team who hadn’t seen it either.  After that the game went into melt down, Clapton ending up with a kickable penalty in front of the posts when a “squeeze ball”, stolen by Swampy who patiently waited until the ball was out before he nicked it, was adjudged offside even though he was stood over the player at the time.

Harlow had been the better team for pretty much the whole game, but did not make the best use of the ball, Clapton defended well and played to the ref.

The overall lesson to learn from this game is that we need to get switched on straight away.  Play to our strengths and trust the backs with good, clean ball.  Last of all, and I am guiltier than most, Play to the referee and say nothing(easier said than done sometimes)

Apologies go to those players who did not get on the pitch(we actually had too many players), your time will come sooner than you think, Glen, Karl and Hammer.

Thanks to everyone that came and watched us in the pouring rain and wind chill to about -10, we appreciate your support.

MOTM-Karl had a great game, so did Danny Fitz, Swampy as captain of vice.

COTM-We all know who this was (Even the spectators and the 2 Clapton players who apologised to Swampy after the game) even though it will not change the result.

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