The sunny but breezy conditions at Low Road offered perfect conditions for playing open, running rugby and the Owls started the game showing this to be their intention.

Harwich fly half Annalise Allan kept the visitors’ defence on their toes either by making good breaks herself or moving the ball through the back line where a new centre pairing of Sian Fahie and Kristin Kvalvik demonstrated great ability in breaking down the London side’s structure. This was complimented by some good powerful running from the Harwich pack with Tasha Bray, Lauren Richardson and Di Woods featuring strongly. East London’s possession of the ball was consistently being disrupted by the quickness of the Owls’ back row of Bear Haywood, Sophia Tricker and Mimi Montgomery who upset the visitors’ continuity.
Harwich pressure eventually told on the visitors and Allan broke through a disorganised defence on the halfway line. She rounded a couple of players, making one of them sit down with a powerful hand off to score the first try. Unfortunately she dragged the conversion just wide of the post.

East London reacted strongly but the Owls’ defence remained resolute. From a breakdown on her own 10 metre line Naomi Dobner picked up the ball at the base of the ruck and broke through the covering defence. Her sprint up the wing was halted by a great cover tackle by the London full back but strong support work saw Harwich quickly recycle the ball and pass it through several pairs of hands for Montgomery to cross the line for a sublime team try.

Soon after this Harwich lost the influential Kvalik and winger Dena Gibbons through injury forcing them to move Haywood and Tricker into the backs.

Starting the second half with a ten point deficit, East London changed their tactics. They recycled the ball quickly through offloads and made good ground doing this. Whilst Harwich repelled these advances by the visitors, they struggled to break out of their own half and were constantly under pressure. Having to stop East London’s big, powerful forwards eventually took its toll and the visitors forwards drove over the line for their first try which they also converted.

The home side started to put the visitors under pressure again but a lack of discipline and poor structure cost them dearly. The East London full back picked up a loose ball and danced her way for forty metres through the Harwich defence to score a great solo try that was again converted.

With only a few minutes left of the game the home side threw everything at the visitors. A good passing move set Haywood off down the wing only for her to be stopped just short of the line and despite the pressure, the visitors held on for the victory.

With a bye in the junior cup this weekend Harwich have the time and space to rectify the errors of the second half to ensure they can be on the right side of the result when playing these close, tight matches.