Harlow Ladies 32 Chelmsford 0 (6th January 2008)

Harlow ladies produced a convincing result against Chelmsford on Sunday. They performed well in all areas and ran in six good tries and, even more important, were able to keep the ball alive and move it through a number of hands in the process. Chelmsford played with great determination and could have hoped to put points on the board. They were denied however by hard first time tackling by Harlow forcing them to play most of the game in their own half.

Harlow put down an early marker in the second minute when a good offload from Kelly Cotterill put Keighley Diprose away to run in a 50 yard try.  After 8 minutes it was fullback Sarah Stimpson who came into the line and showed that she had the pace to leave the defence behind for the second try. Chelmsford responded with great spirit and for the next 20 minutes defended well cutting off three more break out attempts by Harlow. In the closing minutes of the half however scrum half Nicky King took the ball from a ruck and made a solo break shaking off one defender and out sprinting another to touch down under the posts. Diprose converted for a 17 – 0 at half time.

In  the second half with the slope in their favour Chelmsford tried to pressure Harlow by kicking deep into the Harlow half but soon realized that Millman at fullback would simply take the ball cleanly and counter attack at pace. Good handling saw Diprose take the ball on a loop pass to run in her second try early in the half. For the next twenty minutes it was cut and thrust play midfield. The determination of Harlow in defence was illustrated when the home side tried to spin the ball wide. Natalie McClarnon took out the fly half with a hard low tackle. The ball went to the inside centre who was taken out equally hard by Keighly Diprose by which time McClarnon was up to take the outside centre. To Chelmsford’s credit they shipped the ball on in the tackle but this time the receiver ran into Kelly Cotterill and two other forwards and there was no way on from there! At about 65 minutes Harlow produced the try of the match. The ball moved through 8 pairs of  hands at real pace before Clare Lacey took the ball 20 years out and sprinted through for her first ever try for Harlow.  The Harlow pack had worked hard throughout the game and it was fitting that the final try cam from them. Kelly Cotterill going through on the crash ball to take out two defenders and touch down.

Team:  Sam Acraman, Nadia Thomas, Zoe Walker, Clare Lacey, Gemma Acraman, Sarah McCarthy, Kelly Cotterill, Natalie McClarnon, Nichola King, Keighley Diprose, Rebecca Conway, Nicky Millman, Amy Kent, Sarah Stimpson.

Tries: Keighley Diprose(2), Sarah Stimpson, Nichola King, Clare Lacey, Kelly Cotterill.

Conversion: Keighley Diprose.

Next Sunday the Ladies result their League Campaign traveling into Suffolk to meet Woodbridge I what is expected to be a very hard game.

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