May & Baker 31 - 55 H&D

Both teams had a range of players away this week for a variety of reasons, but were both keen to ensure the game went ahead and played in a competitive and well spirited nature. Harwich calling on their youthful stalwart that is Jim 'Choccy monster' Hayter.

The home side started the game with just 13 men as some players were running late and Harwich were able to make the two man advantage pay by scoring the first try of the match in the first 5 minutes with some quick ball released to the backline and using the overlap well to dot down.

Clearly the Home side were not going to just roll over and even with a two man deficit, were able to work up the field through strong forward carrying and scrummaging and were able to score a try themselves.

Harwich were quick to get back on the attack and again using the natural overlap were able to make fast yards down the field before going over again to restore the lead to 5 points.

At this point May and Baker received re-enforcements and were then able to field a full side for the remainder of the game. This evened the game up and they were again able to work up the field with their forwards before releasing their fly half and centre to power over the Harwich line again.

From the following kick off, Harwich went on the attack and challenging for the ball in the air, Eldridge and Rozier made a crunching joint tackle, but after clashing heads, resulted in Eldridge needing to leave the field with a suspected head injury putting the Harwich side down to 14 men for the remainder of the game.

Not to be deterred, the Harwich pack working well through strong carries from 'The Choccy Monster' and Leeks forced a penalty just inside the opposition half. Kite taking a quick tap penalty to again release Leeks to charge through the defensive line and offloading neatly to the onrushing and ever present support of his inspirational captain to outpace the oncoming defence to score Harwich's 3rd try.

From the next kick, Harwich fumbled the ball allowing the home side some great field position to attack from inside the Harwich half once again. Strong tackling kept the May and Baker forwards at bay for a while but eventually they were able to break through and score again, with the referee bringing the half to an end just after.

The second half saw the travelling Harwich side raise the tempo throughout the side. Again, led by Hayter with some thunderous contact ball carrying and tackling, along with Ledua who seemed unleashed in the second half, the Harwich side were starting to play some of the free flowing rugby they have become known for this season.

Ledua being the first to open the scoring in the second 40. From a quick scrum in the middle of the field, the ball was passed along the line to Ledua who used some amazing footwork and strength to break through the line and wrong foot the final defender to score.

From the next kick off Harwich were back on the attack again and this was the case from the next 25 mins with Harwich really turning the screw to go over the line a number of times to extend their lead and take the game away from the home side.

Harwich were so keen to attack from anywhere, that Choccy Hayter had to step in at one point and rip the ball from his own player to try and calm things down as the game started to fracture with both sides tiring.

Further tries from Ledua, Leeks, Keeley and Spearing put the game beyond the home side and gave Harwich a very credible away win in the cup, but this was not the end of the day.

The home side showed impressive character to continue to pressure the Harwich team and scored the final score of the game after rewarding some further strong scrummaging leading to some good continuity and ball play to breach the Harwich defence and go over making the final score 31-55 to the travelling Harwich team in an end to end competition.

Captain Robert Wood said' Today was a really good effort from the boys. We had people playing out of position or coming out of retirement to help fulfill todays fixture and it was a real pleasure to see them perform against a good side today. Respect goes out to Mat & Baker for starting with 13 men and putting in a really strong shift to push us all the way, but im glad we came out on top. Now on to next week to get back into league action'.

Harwich travel to Bancroft this Saturday to see if they can continue their strong league form and maintain pressure on the top of the table sides.

Report by Robert Wood