Halstead Templars 15 - 10 H&D II

Templars have never been able defeat their opponent in all of the previous nine encounters and it look liked the status quo would be maintained as the visitors looked comfortable from the start as they took the lion share of the possession forcing the Halstead defence on the back foot and to defend hard
Harwich’s Barney Miller came agonisingly close for his team on the five minute mark but have done the hard work was stopped short, unable to free and extend his arm sufficient to make the line.
Confidence high the visitors were throwing everything and the host, wing Adam Harris was busy on the flanks terrorising the defence out wide, the big forwards making the hard yards and as a whole stringing the phases together across the park as a score was definitely on the cards, it was just a case of when?
Surprisingly it wasn’t until twenty five minutes into the game before the open score came, Harwich having maintained territorial advantage gave the pack the opportunity to demonstrated their dominance with a scrum five meters out, ever reliable hooker Grant Rayner secured the ball as his forward drove over the line for No.8 Josh Edwards to touch down, Male was unable to convert in the difficult windy conditions.
Halstead where quick to reply almost immediately with a converted try, Harwich kicking to clear the line failed to make touch found the fourteen in space to stretching is legs with an arching run to evade the would-be defence.
It was very much game with neither team wanting to concede ground the game was hotly contested but it was Harwich wining the territorial battle, Centre Craig Wilson proved the difference going into the turnaround as he produced a strong individual run to create a rare break in the defensive line to power through and ground the ball for another unconverted try.
The Harwich fragile lead was soon a distant memory as they were court napping, Halsted fourteen receiving the restart deep in his own half with another arching run circumnavigated the defence to touch down for a converted try.
A shell shocked Harwich finding themselves paying the price for the big effort in the first half and their failure to convert into points as the tanks emptied opponents Halstead were full of running reversed the rolls as they turned the tables, becoming the aggressors in this competition as they camped in the opposition half forcing them to dig deep into the reserves to defend their line and putting a string of last ditched try saving tackles.
Halstead were unable to breach the Harwich defence but did come away with 3 points for a penalty conversion.
With little time remain there was a final resurgence from a tiring Harwich side, the late introduction of Joe France and Rob Wood did raise spirits as they threatened, Rob Wood came close as did Mark Griggs on the wing but it proved too little too late to secure the win as time run out.

With the defeat Harwich had to settle for second place in the league and whilst to win would have been the cherry on the cake for the season it a great result for the seasiders efforts this season, not a team to dwell on what might have been they will turn their attentions to next season campaign.
This week Harwich are a low road in a friendly against Bancroft’s, KO 3.00.
Team: M Sanders-Crook, G Rayner, R Kemp, M Cowley, R Miller, S Pitham, M Green, J Edwards, C Johnson, S Male, D Warren, C Wilson, S Fax, A Harris, R Elmore, M Griggs, J Schut, L Durrant, O Bray (C), S Johnson, R Wood, J Francis