Harlow Rugby Club Special Round Up  Sunday 26th February 2006. 

Yorkshire 25  Eastern Counties 10 

Chloe Van Dop, Sarah Stimpson and Tracey Lee from  Harlow Ladies were all in the starting line up for the Eastern Counties match v Yorkshire at Leeds on Sunday. Eastern started well with two unconverted tries in the first quarter of the game both scored by Harlow’s Sarah Stimpson; one of then a spectacular interception on her own 22, running the full length of the pitch for the touchdown. Yorkshire scored twice before half time making it 10 all at the turnaround. Yorkshire went on to win 25-10 with 3 unconverted tries in the 2nd half. Overall a very tough game, with all three Harlow players played very well according to the coaches and Sarah Simpson was the coaches player of the match. To read the official Ladies report - Click here

Harlow U14s 15 Bandon U14s 29

On Saturday 25th February Harlow's U14s played host to a Touring Irish U14s team from Bandon RFC. The tourist's trip started off eventfully when it looked as if they would not be able to get here because  of the gridlocked M11. A rescue party of drivers with good local knowledge was quickly put together and a convoy of cars was able bring them to the club.

The match started off with both teams showing their commitment to a fast open game plan. Harlow drew first blood a try from half-way by Harlow centre Joe Pite. The Harlow backs put together some fine passing moves which kept the tourists on the back foot for much of the first 20 minutes. The half-back pairing of Danny Smith and Sam Gregory were particularly effective in ensuring that the centers received plenty of attacking opportunities. The pressure paid off and Joe Pite was able to sprint over the line for his second try. Neither first half try was converted. Both sets of forwards worked hard to provide opportunities to launch their backs in attack but the more aggressive Bandon pack slowly gained the upper hand. Bandon capitalised on this and scored two fine converted tries in the closing 10 minutes of the first-half.

Bandon's large touring party enabled them to roll on 9 pairs of fresh legs for the second half, the majority of which were forwards. An unchanged Harlow pack battled hard against their opposition but were obviously tiring as their ability to get to the breakdown gradually slowed. When Harlow's firebrand number 6, Adam Davison, left the field injured the home side were forced to introduce one of the backs into the back row. From that point on Bandon's backs received the lion's share of the second-half's attacking play and they ran in 3 unconverted tries. As ever, the Harlow U14s kept their heads up and close to full-time the half-backs were able to feed the ball out to Joe Pite. Joe duly responded with a strong run-in to give the home side a well deserved consolation try.

This was a fantastic display of junior rugby, played with spirit and determination. Both sets of players were a credit to their clubs.

Harlow U14s

Davis-Gardener, Hayden, Heaton, Dimalie, Doherty, Hammond, Davison, Harris, Sanderson, Gregory, Smith, Cable, Pite, Almond, Burroughs, Mortimer, McWilliam, Enifer