Woodbridge 15 Harwich and Dovercourt 25

At times Harwich played sublime attacking rugby and at times made some basic errors. After dominating most of the game Harwich will be disappointed that they didn’t come away with a fourth try and bonus point.

The game started with both teams playing some determined and hard rugby in the middle of the field. Woodbridge missed a penalty in the first five minutes only to see Sam Male slot over for Harwich, a few minutes later, to put them in the lead. Woodbridge then missed another penalty just before the most controversial moment of the game.
In the 25th minute with Sam Male attacking through the middle of the park he was upended by the Woodbridge fullback who was immediately dismissed for a dangerous tackle by the referee. With the home crowd and team incensed Woodbridge upped their game to equalise the score 3-3 through a penalty.

It wasn’t until ten minutes later that Harwich took advantage of playing with an extra man when Sam Male made another break through the centre and fed the ball to Sam Jewell who elected to kick the ball instead of run with it. The ball was retrieved by the impressive Robert Edgar whose pass was gathered by Kyle Hutchins who ran in to score the first try. With Sam Male converting Harwich were 10-3 up.

Harwich extended their lead just before half time when after some scrappy play the ball was given to Shane Manning who passed on to Rob Nicoll his pass was taken on by the Harwich skipper Sean Mills Jnr to score. Sam Male missed the conversion but Harwich went in at half time 15-3 in the lead and it looked to all intense and purpose that the game was over as a contest.

With the wind behind them in the second half it only seemed a matter of how many tries Harwich were going to get especially when the dynamic Jason Hatcher ran in a try soon after the start. At 22-3 up Harwich were dominant and were unlucky not to get the fourth try and bonus point when Joe Francis made a splendid break only to see a Woodbridge defender deliberately knock on his pass to Rob Simkins which would have surely resulted in a try. Unfortunately the referee was unsighted to this at the time.

However, with 20 minutes remaining Woodbridge conjured up a dramatic comeback. With Harwich pinning them on their own lines they broke out and scored a wonderful try. A few minutes later they scored again after some poor defending and missed tackles by Harwich in the centre of the field. With the score now 22-15 to Harwich, Woodbridge were in full flow. But with only a few minutes remaining Harwich were on the attack and were awarded a penalty which Sam Male slotted over to make the score 25-15.