Harlow 1st XV Won -v- Colchester 19 - 15

Harlow 2nd XV 24  Rochford 26

Friendly 

A Hawkins hat trick could not prevent Harlow narrowly losing their first home game of the season against a fortunate Rochford side.

Harlow wasted numerous opportunities to score throughout the game.  Ball in hand Harlow looked unstoppable at times and a big score was predicted. However, as was the case last year after building a respectable lead Harlow sat back and invited pressure on themselves.  The breakdowns were yet again a cause for concern as Rochford turned Harlow over on numerous occasions and must be worked on in training if Harlow are to live up to their potential this year.

The game started brightly with Harlow playing quick rugby offloading the ball in the contact area leaving Rochford on the back foot.  Rochford slowly started working their way into the game and a kick over the top left them in Harlow’s 22.  A spilled ball from a back of a breakdown saw a Rochford forward the first to react dive on it for their first score 0-7.

Harlow responded quickly after the first score and again after some good passing throughout the team saw Hawkins pick up from the base of a ruck to dive over for his first try of the afternoon.  The conversion was kicked by Dunn to tie the score 7-7.

By then it was one way traffic with Harlow dominating pretty much of the remaining half only some sloppy passing from Harlow and resolute defending from Rochford keeping them in the game.  They could not however stop Harlow from scoring once more before the break where Shaun Roberts timed a lovely pass to Hawkins that saw him crash over from 10 metres out to score his second.  Half time score 12-7.

The second half continued the same as the first with Harlow possessing most of the ball.  A penalty kick from Darren Dunn leaving Harlow just outside Rochford’s 22.  From the resulting lineout Harlow scored their third try.  Some good awareness from hooker Martin Mallia saw a huge gap at the front of the line where he passed to replacement Gareth Summers who then, showing great strength, charged through to be stopped about ten metres out where he offloaded to Mallia who finished the move he started to see Harlow extend their lead 17-7.

 Harlow then started to take their foot off the pedal which allowed Rochford to see more and more of the ball.  A quick turnover from a ruck saw Rochford pass the ball out to their impressive full- back who broke through Harlow’s line of defence to score 17-12.

A quick break by Harlow’s number 8 Lloyd saw him stop just short of Rochford’s try line.  A rolling maul was formed and Hawkins, who was impressive throughout the game, was at hand to score his third try and complete his hat trick with 5 minutes to go.   Darren Dunn slotted the resulting conversion to make the score 24-12.

With all the game seemingly won Harlow started to relax which saw Rochford doggedly fight back to score two tries in quick succession.  One was a wide move from a penalty which saw their outside centre score and the other a fantastic move from the resulting quick off saw the ball go through about 7 pairs of Rochford hands to see them make a stunning fight back and take the win 24-26. 

Team (follow links to player profiles):  Martin Clarke, Martin Mallia, James Hodges, Darran Hawkins, Matthew Todd, (Gareth Summers), Shaun Roberts, Lloyd, Robert Cochrane, Matt King, Darren Dunn, Matt Gladden, Lee Hodges (Captain), Ian Rundall, Jimmy Worthington, Peter Westbrook (Mark Whiting (Buster).

Stuart Wilkins, Jo Attwell, Tommy Johnson, Andrew Quinn (Tom Kavangh), Andrew Vanston, Steve Ward, Alasdair Phillips 

Tries:  Hawkins (3), Mallia.  Conversions:  Dunn (2).

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