Date: Sun 14th Oct 2018
Time: 11:00am
Match Report
Sunday 14th October – Thurrock u13s 35 Harlow u13s 25 – Friendly
Today we travelled to play Thurrock for a friendly match ahead of playing them in the league at home later in the season. School rugby took a little toll this week as we lost Corey Kelman who had a bump on the head yesterday, but he still came along to support the team.
Being a little concerned before the game that the team weren’t switched on enough and once the game was underway it was clear it would take a little why to warm or wake up. In the first ten minutes we conceded try through the centre and then a try from the crash ball. But then we were awake.
All of a sudden the switch had flicked from off to on, we were pressuring Thurrock when they had the ball and it was being spilled, we managed to crash through and the ball was hacked forward, it was running over the dead ball line, but the referee saw that a Thurrock player had pulled back Henry which prevented him from grounding the ball and awarded a penalty try.
Harlow were pushing Thurrock now and created a little space for Joe to sprint around his winger to the corner and level the scores.
During this period of the game our ball retention was excellent and Thurrock were struggling to and purchase on the game, many of the team where carrying the ball strongly, Will Pite carried hard and got to ground before Charlie Jacques sealed off, Owen to Tobie, to Montelle, step, jink, sprint try! A very good team try. We are now leading against a side who in previous years would have put 50 points on us, it’s fair to say the Harlow travelling support is getting rowdy.
We went a little quite from the kick off which Thurrock dealt with well executed good ruck and shifted the ball wide to score. From the kick off both sides were scrappy which Thurrock took advantage off to build a little pressure and just managed to squeeze over before half time.
Half time: 20-15 (4 tries to 3)
The chat at half time was very positive, some of the players were beginning to believe in their ability two changes saw Danny Billington and Callum Hewlett come on. Callum had been a bit concerned about a bump on his arm in the warm up, so roll on the biggest Thurrock player who decides to run straight at Callum, thump, the Thurrock player is on the ground thinking I won’t run at that little guy again and Callum is back in the game.
Danny too was keen to make an impact and was hungry for the ball offering himself to carry the ball at every opportunity and making some decent ground.
Thurrock worked some numbers twice in almost identical ways to get space out wide and outpace our defence to the line. Now the backs started to pay attention that Joe in a bit of space on his wing may just have the pace to beat them, so they put the ball their twice, the first time from the half way line Joe broke and scored the second time from a bit closer where Joe stepped inside to finish a well worked try.
It’s all square in the second half and we are coming to the end of the game, we are defending out line knowing that we can win the ball in the scrum, the Thurrock coaches were very impressed with our scrummaging and we had won many against the head. So it’s all to play for. Thurrock put in at the scrum and we can’t quite steal it, their 9 to 10 who ran to the blind side and drew our defence to pass wide for the winning score. It was a well worked try and then the referee blew the whistle for full time.
Second half score: 15-10 (3 tries to 2)
After a slow start, the Harlow boys played really well with some great enthusiasm and endeavour. Thurrock is a side that scored for fun against us at the end of last season in the tournaments at Braintree and Romford so it us great to see how much we have improved to the point where we were in touching distance of beating them. The search for that elusive first win of the season will continue in two week’s time at Stevenage meanwhile we have two training sessions to prepare, see you all on Wednesday night!
Final score: 35-25 (7 tries to 5)
Tries: Penalty try, Joe Court (3), Montelle Levy
Referee: From Thurrock
Man of the Match: Joe Court
Thurrock’s MOM for Harlow: Henry Stovell
Special mentions: Montelle Levy for having another good game in the centre and when switching to full back making sure he’s involved in the game. Danny Billington for having a great impact with his direct running after coming on in the second half. Jamie Oliver for a great effort throughout the game getting to the ball. Charlie Jacques for playing direct and securing the ball. Tobie Westbrook for great endeavour trying to make things happen throughout the game.
1st Half team
1. Jacob Morgan, 2. Archie Goodger, 3.Ed Lea, 4. Charlie Jacques, 5. Will Pite, 8. Jamie Oliver, 9. Owen Eynon. 10. Tobie Westbrook, 11. Noah Reynolds, 12. Montelle Levy, 13. Henry Stovell (Captain), 14. Joe Court, 15. Freddie Adams
2nd Half team
1. Jacob Morgan, 2. Archie Goodger, 3. Ed Lea (Sub Corey Kelman), 4. Will Pite, 5. Charlie Jacques, 8. Jamie Oliver, 9. Owen Eynon, 10. Tobie Westbrook, 11. Callum Hewlett, 12. Danny Billington, 13. Henry Stovell (Captain), 14. Joe Court, 15. Montelle Levy