Harwich fielding a full team and the luxury of a full bench which included a rare and welcome turn out from Jim Hayter and the long awaited return of Simon Woodley all of whom set right into the young University side bare fifteen who soon found themselves on the scoreboard as the Forwarded dominated possession in set and open play won scrum ball just inside their own half, No.8 Richard Miller broke from the back catching the home defence out to make big yards drawing the defence to release Flanker George Brunning to run in for the try, a fair reward for his support play, Craig Wilson was unable to convert but was soon opening his account as Miller and Brunning were able to secure a further try a repeat of their earlier efforts to forge an early lead.

As the University struggled to cope with the structure of the Harwich fifteen man game it was against the run of play when the home side touched down for an individual try thanks to some strong running and lack lustre tackling by the visitors.

As Harwich lost their focus they were also forced to reshuffled as Captain Oly Bray’s day was over, forced to leave the field through injury, with the game becoming disjointed this played into the hand of the younger university who with renewed confidence were able to contest get in amongst it to disrupt the Harwich structure and creating scoring opportunities of their own.

Harwich vice-Captain Sam Jewel and his centres were kept busy by the home side’s efforts repeatedly putting in tackles to halt the offensive efforts and launching counter offences of their own as both side contested in the middle of the park.
Harwich were able to rediscover some of there earlier form winning line out ball inside the oppositions twenty two which took quick transition into a driving maul as the pack carried the ball to the line for Mark Sanders-Crook to touch down for an unconverted try just before the break.
The visitors continued their resurgent’s in the second half stringing together phases of play with forwards and back inter passing as they launched another offensive on the try line and as the defence broke down it was Harwich hooker turned prop who touched down for and unconverted try and there last points of the game.

As Reinforcement arriving on the touch line the home side were able to raise their game as they looked a different side with a clear game plane and with newly discovered line speed they were able to ship the ball with pace out wide effectively taking the Harwich dominant forwards out of the game and attack out wide which they did to great effect.

Harwich were now very much on the back foot being forced defend for long period of time and living off scraps as the University demonstrated a skill set and pace to their game which was missing in the first half and whilst Harwich defended valiantly they were found wanting as the home side where able to attack from deep to turn the game round scoring five tries without reply such was the dominance for a well-deserved victory.

Harwich Man of the match went to George Brunning who despite scoring two well-earned tries was also tireless in his efforts around the park throughout the game.

Harwich are away to Thurston this week.