So many times this season Harwich have played teams which they should have put to the sword but once the bonus point try has been scored they have taken their foot of the gas.

At times Harwich played sublime running rugby, swamping Ely. On other occasions the ball became a hot potato. Like the previous week the game started so well for Harwich. Within 4 minutes the ball was fed out of a scrum to captain Sean Mills. Quick hands saw the ball going through Adrian Dalby back to Mills and then out to man of the match Nick Favilino to score. This was Harwich at their best. Sam Male stepped up to score the conversion.

6 minutes later another scintillating move involving Mills and Jay Hatcher saw Favilino take the ball on one wing off load it and pick it up again on the other wing to score his second try. With Male missing the conversion Harwich were 12-0 up inside ten minutes. With Ely reeling this was the time to finish them off but Harwich just couldn’t find the right pass or option to open up their backs as they had done in the first ten minutes.

On half an hour Ely came back when a Harwich handling mistake saw Ely kick through to score. With the conversion missed Ely were lucky to go in at half time only 12-5 down. The second half couldn’t have started better for Harwich with Hatcher taking the ball on and passing to Rob Wood. Wood gave hte ball to Dalby who passed to Kier Blacker who finished well in the corner. With Male converting a difficult score Harwich were now 19-5 up.

But yet again Harwich gifted Ely a try which was converted making the score 19-12. This galvanised Harwich into playing the rugby they are capable off. Sam Jewell took the ball on passing to Favilino who linked with Hatcher in the centre. Hatcher’s power was too much for the Ely defence as he drove over to score a well deserved try. With the conversion missed it was now 24-12 and Harwich had the all important bonus point try.

A short while later Simon Palmer made one of his dominating runs where the ball was recycled to Hatcher to score again. Male converted to make the score 31-12. This was impressive rugby by Harwich but Ely weren’t done. With Kyle Hutchins being yellow carded Ely scored a pushover try form the resulting penalty. With the try converted it was now 31-19. Straight from the kick off Ely scored again. With the score 31-24 Harwich had to dig deep to keep Ely from scoring in the dying minutes.