Owls make good start

Harwich were fielding a strong side with Yas Amber, Ellie Firth, Mim Pearson and Lauren Richardson all returning to the side after lengthy time out of the game.
The Owls also welcomed experienced players in Dani Allsopp and Carmel Leak for their Owls debut.
Yas Amber opened the scoring with a piece of individual brilliance, as East London moved the ball wide to their winger Amber tracked the ball across the field and put in a solid tackle to jar the ball lose, she picked it up and sprinted clear from 50m out to touch down under the posts, Mim Pearson added the extras for a 7-0 lead.
The Owls soon increased their lead when debutant fly half Dani Allsopp chipped the ball wide to the right for Amber to chase, the ball bounced kindly for Harwich and scrum half Holly Cuozzo fed the ball through the backs to Genevieve Croll who stepped past a defender and with Mimi Montgomery on her shoulder offloaded to her to surge into the Vixens 22m, the final pass to winger Lauren Fee saw her speed past the Vixens defence and score for a 12-0 lead after a missed conversion.
East London hit back straight away when they were given a penalty inside the Harwich half, the kick from this gave them a line out inside the Owl 22m line and when another Owl penalty gave them advantage quick recycled ball saw one of their powerful front row score under the posts, the conversion missed for a 12-5 scoreline.
Harwich increased their lead when The Owls other debutant Carmel Leak took a pass at pace to push into The Vixens half, Leak offloaded the ball in the tackle to Genevieve Croll on another superb support run and she put the ball out to Lauren Fee who raced clear down the wing for her double.
With the conversion missed The Owls led 17-5.
With both sides pressing hard and playing some good rugby the game really opened up, The Vixens caught The Owl defence playing too narrow and with swift passes they had an overlap on the wing which a Vixen player sprinted down the sideline to score in the corner, a missed conversion put the score at 17-10.
Lillie Barnett made a superb try saving tackle when the East London fly half broke free, but Harwich hadn’t finished and with time running down towards halftime Sian Smith sprinted clear with support and rucking again exceptional The Vixens were forced into giving a penalty away 5m out from their try line, a quick tap found Mimi Montgomery on a crash ball which the Berlin wall wouldn’t have stopped to smash the ball over the line, as the conversion missed the halftime whistle went for a 22-10 scoreline.
East London scored as the second half started after some strong forward play again saw one of their front row crash over, the extras were added and closed the score to 22-17.
The see saw battle continued with Abi Cutts turning ball over at will it seemed, strong tackling from Sophia Tricker, Carmel Leak and Genevieve Croll.
With East London moving the ball into the Harwich half, Mimi Montgomery read the intended pass intercepting it and racing away towards the try line, she was chased down, but Sian Smith who was quite brilliant with her support play all day, was on her shoulder to take the ball and clear the last defender to score, unfortunately it wasn’t a day for conversions but Harwich held a 27-17 lead.
With East London tiring Harwich extended their lead when a kick to touch resulted in a quick line out on the left, Yas Amber moved the ball across the field to the right touchline and with East London chasing air The Owls quickly advanced and when the ball came back left through good passing Ellie Firth rounded the last defender to score in the corner, she missed the conversion for a 32-17 lead.
With the bonus point already secured and Harwich defending like demons East London were penalised at a ruck on the Harwich 5m line, Montgomery chanced her arm and with a quick tap East London had no answer, Carmel Leak took the pass from Montgomery and surged downfield, again Sian Smith tirelessly ran a superb support line to take the ball from Leak and she in turn found Holly Cuozzo to sprint clear from 30m out to finish The Owls account, the conversion missed but made the score 37-17.
East London rounded off the scoring with the final play after Harwich fumbled the restart kick off, this resulted in The Vixens being awarded a penalty on The Owls 5m line after good rucking, the tap and go again saw one of their pack score under the posts, they kicked the conversion as tine expired for a 37-24 final scoreline.
The Owls now travel to Romford this Sunday which should be another tough game based on last seasons encounters.

Report by Tim Flatt