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Harlow 33
Tabard 0
(26th October 2008)
Friendly
Harlow make
heavy weather of Tabard
Harlow played their second
home game of the season in a friendly against Tabard on Sunday and their
sixth game overall since the start of the season. They still remain
unbeaten. With the clocks going back an hour winter tends to follow close
behind and this year was no exception as heavy overnight rain had left the
Harlow pitch sodden with standing water in places. These were to be the
worst conditions that the Harlow Ladies had played in this season and, in
the final analysis, the conditions probably won in what was an error strewn
game. Harlow also had to provide Tabard with 4 players to make it a full
15-a-side match and this further disrupted the flow of the game as the
Harlow players rotated so that all had some game time in the Harlow shirt*.
Keighley Diprose provided some focus for the coaches before the match. She
is an experienced and talented player who is making the difficult transition
from fly-half to flanker and consequently is having to learn lots of new
skills but she made a very promising debut in her new position and after a
scrappy opening 10 minutes she found herself in space and showed great pace
to break the defence and score under the posts. Gizzi converted. Next came
probably Harlow’s best score and a reminder of what the backs can
do if they remember to run straight, pass accurately and catch the ball.
Fly-half, Sarah Stimpson made a lateral run off of a loose ball in midfield
and by straightening up she pulled in all the cover defenders before popping
the ball up for Perry to take the ball at pace to score under the posts.
Gizzi converted. More sloppy play prevailed in the first half with the ball
spending more time in the mud than in the hands as both teams struggled to
deal with the conditions. Half-Time: Harlow
14 – Tabard 0
After a prolonged half-time to try and organise the
Harlow
players to integrate into the Tabard team and change combinations in the
backs the match restarted under a lighter sky. Harlow
played a tighter more direct game in the forwards with Lacey and Cotterill
in particular making strong carries and gaining good yardage over the gain
line. To their credit, the Tabard players were strong defenders and many
Harlow attacks were halted when the Tabard defence forced errors but Harlow
were at least playing with more shape and purpose than they managed in the
first half. What also became more and more apparent was that this Harlow
team are becoming much better organised defenders with few first-time
tackles missed and good line discipline and organisation at the rucks giving
Harlow
the extra player in defence. Nikki King grabbed the first try of the
second-half after a sniping run from a ruck in the Tabard 22m and 15 minutes
later, Cotterill scored a typical bulldozing try from a sharply taken
pick-and-go after a strong carry from McLellan. Gizzi kicked both
conversions. Laura Hare, a new recruit to Harlow
playing in her first game, caught the eye when she returned to the pitch to
slot in at inside-centre and she linked and ran well with Millman and
Stimpson in the midfield. The last 10 minutes of the match saw Tabard really
threaten the Harlow line for a consolation try but determined defending saw
the Harlow Ladies drive Tabard back and from a stolen lineout well inside
the Harlow 22m, King made a break at the tail of the lineout and sprinted
90m outpacing the Tabard cover to score Harlow’s
fifth try.
*A special mention to new Harlow wing Toni Beard who played the entire game
for Tabard and made 2 try scoring tackles to deny
Harlow
certain scores!
Tries: King 2; Perry 1; Cotterill 1; Diprose 1
Conversions: Gizzi 4
Team: 1. Acraman; 2. Gizzi; 3. Clarke/Marshall; 4. Trounce; 5. Lee/Tovey;
6. Lacey; 7. Diprose; 8. Cotterill (Capt); 9. King; 10. Stimpson; 11. Perry;
12. McLellan/Hare; 13. Millman; 14. Hobbs/Kent; 15. McKenna; 16. Beard
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