Harwich & Dovercourt Owls v Southwold Swallows

Harwich & Dovercourt Owls 39- 5 Southwold Swallows, 23 February 2020.

Harwich Owls welcomed Southwold Swallows to Low Road Sunday for a league encounter to keep their title chase on track, the weather conditions were again harsh with strong winds and squally rain affecting play throughout the game.

The game started briskly and The Owls soon had Southwold on the back foot, despite the strong wind, some slick handling and effective game management by Abi Cutts and Danni Allsopp gave The Owls quick recycled ball on multiple phases, with the Southwold defence pulled to their left a swift counter play to the right saw Danni Allsopp break clear on a 3 v 1 overlap, she didn’t need any help and touched down for the first score, kicking was never going to be easy and the conversion fell short, but The Owls were 5-0 up.
Harwich soon doubled their lead following a scrum on Southwold’s 22m line, Carmel Leak picked up at the base of the scrum and drawing in the Southwold defence she passed to fullback Yas Amber to cut through the trailing defenders and score in the corner, the conversion again dropped short putting Harwich up 10-0.
The Owls pressure on the Southwold line out was becoming an issue for the away side and when Harwich turned over a throw on the Southwold 22m Mimi Montgomery picked up the loose ball and broke through would be tacklers to score, this time Mim Pearson’s conversion was successful and The Owls led 17-0.
With half time approaching The Owls scored the bonus point try when Carmel Leak put a huge tackle on Southwold’s fullback trying to run the ball deep inside their half, the ball was fumbled, picked up by Rhiannon Hatton and she charged through three would be tacklers to score her first try on her debut for The Owls, the conversion missed but at the end of the half it was 22-0 to Harwich.
With The Owls now having the wind advantage it was Southwold who opened the second half scoring when ill discipline from Harwich gave Southwold consecutive penalties pushing them back to their try line, whilst escaping a yellow card for multiple offences they could not prevent Southwold getting a much deserved try when off of one of the penalties 5m out Harwich were totally disorganised and a quick tap and go resulted in a Southwold score by their scrum half, the conversion attempt missed but they were now back in the game 22-5.
The Owls soon put Southwold under pressure when the ensuing kick off was well chased down and excellent tackling forced a scrum to Harwich on the Southwold 10m line, with no answer to the dominance of The Owl pack the Southwold scrum was pushed back allowing scrum half Abi Cutts to pick up and pop the ball to Mimi Montgomery who powered forward and in turn off loaded to Carmel Leak running another stunning line to slice through the Swallows defence to score, the conversion missed giving The Owls a 27-5 lead.
Harwich soon had the ball again with fullback Yas Amber, breaking tackles from deep in her own half she stormed into the Southwold half and with good phase play keeping The Owls pushing forward Leah Farmer took a pass from Abi Cutts and cut an impressive line towards the posts only to be held up over the try line by some impressive Swallows defence.
However from the resultant 5m scrum fullback Yas Amber scored her second try of the day with an impressive set piece play cutting back against the grain of the trailing Southwold defence to score increasing the margin to 32-5 following the missed conversion attempt.
With Southwold visibly tiring having put up a resilient display and the clock running down The Owls finished on a high when a quick tap penalty taken by Mimi Montgomery caught Southwold napping, the impressive Carmel Leak took the pass from Montgomery at speed to sprint clear from 20m out leaving a trail of would be tacklers in her wake, Mim Pearson closed the day out kicking the extras for a final score of 39-5.
This weekend sees The Owls final home game of the season against table toppers Hackney in what promises to be an exciting encounter.