Date: Sat 14th Apr 2018

Time: 3.00pm

Match Report

A glorious sunny afternoon at Latton Park saw 5th placed Harlow up against 4th placed Wanstead.

An early penalty conceded by Harlow saw Wanstead take a 3 point lead. Harlow’s back line replied straight away with full back Matthew Dodds bursting into the line and creating space for winger Dale Stalley to score Harlow’s first try.
With the score at 5 – 3 both teams were testing each other out. After 27 minutes a lack of concentration from Harlow allowed Wanstead to score their first try of the game and with the conversion eased them into a 5 – 10 lead.
Harlow finished the half well with Dale Stalley catching a defensive kick and making an inspiring run through the Wanstead defence, scoring under the posts.
With Smith converting Harlow finished the first half leading 12 – 10.

Wanstead starting the second half well scoring 2 converted tries. Harlow had good spells of pressure but could not convert this into points. Finally Dodds broke through the Wanstead defence but was tackled 10 metres from the try line. Before going to ground he managed to keep the ball live by passing to Ross Stalley to score.
With 10 minutes to go Dodds managed to get on the score sheet scoring Harlow’s 4th try. Smith’s conversion kick brought the scores level at 24 – 24.
Wanstead had the final say scoring their fourth try of the game, making the final score 24 – 29.

Harlow came out of the game with two bonus points, one for scoring four or more tries and one because their losing margin was less than seven points thus securing their fifth place in the league.

Tries: Dale Stalley (2), Ross Stalley, Matthew Dodds

Conversions: Danny Smith (2)

Team: 1. Jack Christie, 2.James Clark 3. Martin Mallia, 4. Karl Roddell, 5. Adam Seeley, 6. Shaun Roberts, 7. Scott Whitby, 8. Simon Vanbeck, 9. Charlie Woodington, 10. Danny Smith, 11. Ryan McGlone, 12. Alfie Clark,13. Ross Stalley, 14 Dale Stalley,. 15. Matthew Dodds, 16. Paul Prindiville,17. Michael Weston 18. Chay Clark

Harlow keep their 5th place in the 12 club division as a result of their very strong performance in the first half of the season. In the second half however a high level of player injuries put them under pressure. Next Saturday they play league leaders Rochford who have come through the season unbeaten and frequently with massive scorelines. The game which was twice postponed as a result of snow will present Harlow with a challenge. The league position is however now fixed and Harlow will be looking to the following weekend when they face Romford in final of the Essex Cup.