H&D II’s 43-25 Thurston II’s

The home side squad was bolstered with the return from injury of Simon Pitham and Richard Millers adding further strength to their strong forward contingent and Sam Male in the backs, this week also saw a new father and son combination for the sea-sider’s as Mark and Gareth Sanders-Crook lined up for the start.

Proceeding were dominated by Harwich pack right from the off, the big experience forwards exerting themselves on the opposition retaining the ball with relative ease to provide a solid platform in the game and the territorial advantage.

The Harwich backs were full of running, relished the opportunity to put pace on the ball to slice through the Thurston defence winger Rob Page put in an impressive performance and was unlucky not to open the scoring when he was just stopped short of the line as he left the defence in his wake but it wasn’t long before Harwich No10 Kyle Hutchin and Centre Gareth Sanders-Crook showed their pace and quality taking opportunity to secure a try a piece, single conversion by Hutchin as he started his twenty points haul for the day.

The host controlling the game in all quarters giving confidence to have a go saw winger Dave Warren, Man of the Match produce his performance of the season coming close to a try of his own thank to his efforts, but it was left to Hutchin to extend the lead with a converted penalty.

Thurston did put point on the board before the break with a penalty of their own.

From the restart the game took a big shift as the Thurston were unable to field a full front row forcing the game to be played out with uncontested scrum robbing Harwich of their dominance in the scrums, leaving the host no choice to sacrifice the big forwards for a more mobile option which compromised their performance in the rucks and mauls.

Despite the restructure Harwich were able to extend their points tally for the day with Richard Miller showing his worth as he muscled his way over the line for two tries and Hutchin and Sanders-Crook the younger showed pace and strength to bag a further try apiece all converted by Hutchin.

Thurston were able to take full advantage of the new found ball possession thanks to the uncontested scrums gifting them four tries and a single conversion for their efforts.

Team: M Green, G Rayner, M Sanders-Crook, M Cowley, R Woods, S Pitham, S Mills Snr, R Miller, M Bow, K Hutchins, R Page, G Williams, G Sanders-Crook, D Warren, J Newland, James Mann, D Splarn, R Nicoll, S Male, L Durrant, K Green, J Schut, J Vincent

This week Harwich have a week’s rest.