The Owls made a confident start and soon had the home side under pressure. Full back Yas Amber burst the the Amazons’ defence to be stopped by a high tackle by her opposite number but she was able to offload the ball to Mimi Montgomery who scored under the posts. Amber kicked the conversion.

Woodbridge started to exert pressure on the Owls but their defence remained solid. However the Harwich scrum was under pressure from the experienced Woodbridge front row and conceded two penalties that were narrowly missed. The Owls’ backs were now moving the ball well and from one sweeping move from their own 22 just failed to score when the referee deemed the ball held up when Naomi Dobner crashed over the line in the corner.

Although Harwich were more than matching the Amazons at lineouts and in the breakdown they continued to struggle in the scrums and it was from one of these that the home side’s fly half evaded the defensive cover score an unconverted try. The Harwich backs continued to be a threat and only some excellent tackling from the Woodbridge centre and fullback kept the half time score at 5 - 7 for the visitors.

The second half started with Woodbridge on the offensive. Harwich turned over possession and centre Sarah Nash, making her debut for the Owls, put in a big clearance kick upfield. A good chase by Poppy Flatt put the fullback under pressure and she was tackled by the chasing Nash spilling the ball into the path of Bear Haywood who sprinted 50 metres to score under the posts.

Injuries began to tell on the home side and they were reduced to 14 players when another debutant, Stevie Farrow, turned over the ball at a ruck and broke the defence to race 40 metres for a try throwing an outrageous dummy pass to fool the final defender. Amber again converted the try. The Owls scored again from the kick off when Nash scythed and weaved through the defence to be tackled on the home 22. She offloaded to the impressive Montgomery who brushed off two defenders to score in the corner.

Despite Woodbridge losing another player through injury the visitors were unable to break the stubborn Amazon defence and the final whistle blew with the score at 5 - 26.

Harwich were able to give two other players, Lauren Fee and Sierra Brown, their debuts and both demonstrated great abilities and will be great assets to the team.

Harwich and Dovercourt Owls next league game is on 30th. October when they play at home against Harlow.