East London Ladies 31 - H&D Owls 10

Harwich Owls travelled to East London ladies for a third round cup match,

From the opening kick off Harwich were on the back foot and East London camped inside the Harwich half for a sustained period of time scoring two converted tries for a 14-0 lead.

A lack of competitive rugby from the Christmas break really showed in Harwich being unable to get hold of the ball to attack the opposition.

The home side scored again to make it 21-0 and it was after this that The Owls finally woke up, strong runs from Abi Cutts and some great turnover ball from Beth Lemessurier saw Harwich put the home side under pressure but despite all the Owls efforts half time came with no further scoring. The second half started with the home side extending their lead with an unconverted try despite some great covering tackles from Sophia Tricker, Abi Cutts and Di Wood.

The Owls had dominated the scrum all day with hooker Emma Simons turning over ball after ball against the head, from one of these Abi Cutts stormed away blindside and offloaded to Sybil Taunton who broke clear to pass to Poppy Flatt to touch down for a try in the corner, the conversion was missed making it 26-5.

From the ensuing kick off the ball broke to Kimberley Hutchings who showed a clean pair of heels to the home side to score under the posts, again the conversion missed but at 26-10 The Owls were on the ascendancy.

The home side were put under extreme pressure and with a full subs bench which they made use of they weathered the storm eventually dominating the last 10 minutes with their fresher forwards and extending the lead with an unconverted try to make the final score 31-10 to East London.