For the past six seasons Harwich have played and lost to Southwold, in the league and cup, but only a few points. Now they can put that behind them and enjoy a hard worked victory.

With Southwold top of the table and also having a 100% record Harwich knew that they would be in for a tough afternoon. But showing the same determination and spirit they have displayed in the early part of the season Harwich overcame the odds.
The game was a tight war of attrition right from the start with neither side giving any ground. The Harwich backrow of Steven Tucker, Ed Mayhew and Simon Palmer threw themselves into tackles on the concrete like Harwich pitch. Likewise, the Southwold backs snuffled any attacking moves the Harwich backs could amass leaving players such as Joe Francis no room to manoeuvre.

The deadlock was broken in the 20th minute when Southwold managed a drop goal from 20 metres to go three points ahead. At this point neither side looked like scoring tries. With attacks by either side being snuffed out in the midfield the game got even tighter. After 30 minutes Harwich were awarded a penalty which Sam Male converted to bring the scores back level.

Harwich now began to make some headway with the half back partnership of Julius Abwanzo and man of the match Kyle Hutchins starting to find small gaps in the Southwold defence. With half time looming Harwich pressed on the right side of Southwold try line where Abwanzo switched the play to the left field. Robert Edgar, who has had a splendid start to the season, took on the Southwold backs before passing out to veteran Adrian Dalby to score in the far left corner. With the conversion missed Harwich were 8-3 up at the break.

The second half was a carbon copy of the first where Southwold, with the wind at their backs could not break the Harwich line and didn’t look like scoring. Equally Harwich did make some pressing attacks down the left and right field but could not break down the Southwold resilience. Rob Simkins the Harwich wing replacement made one dashing break down the right but was pulled down a few metres from the line. As the half wore on Harwich managed to pin Southwold in the middle of the field giving them little chance of a score.

Indeed the second half remained scoreless leaving Harwich deserved winners. Even the Southwold coaching staff were complimentary about the new found self belief and focus of the young Harwich side.

Harwich are now second in the league and this week play Norwich Crusaders away.