Home Win for Harwich 2's

The home side started the stronger putting the visitors under constant pressure, but were unable to convert into points in the early stages looking nervous as they tried to settle into the game.

There was an usually high count of handling errors for the Harwich Camp which
the young Halstead side were quick to react to as they counter-attacked to great effect. Harwich No. 10 Joe Francis gave the home side good territorial advantage with the boot as they established dominance of the game eventually leading to a 16-0 lead at the half way stage. Despite butchering several scoring opportunities bagging two tries from Tom Fitch in the centres crashing over the line and Sam Male joining the line with pace from full Back leaving the defence in his wake to touch down over the line, Male also converted two penalty attempts.

Harwich skipper Oly Bray was forced to sit out the end of the first and start of the second half after receiving a yellow card as his fourteen men kept the pressure on the Halstead defence as they switched tactics moving the ball through the hand eventually resulting in a penalty in the oppositions 22 which saw Harwich No.8 Dean Splarn show his strength to power over the line.

The Harwich front five combinations of Bray, Green, Smith, Sander-Crook, Woods and Woodward put in the hard work in both the set plays and about the park as they dominated their opposite numbers providing the solid platform for the team to build on, leaving the back row of Mills Snr, Splarn and Scriberas free to roam and link up with the centres.

Sean Mills Jnr. made a brief appearance before being forced to leave the game with a cut to the head requiring five stiches but not before leaving his stamp on the game as he injected pace into the Harwich game and playing his part in the next try feeding Keen who released Chris Coyle’s out wide on the wing, who with work to do showed great skill to scramble over the line for an unconverted try

Harwich’s final try came from Matt Stace making his first appearance of the season who put in a strong performance on the wing and in the centres with a strong display of running which the Halsted defence struggled to contain, eventually finding himself in space to add to the score tally, Craig Wilson converted.

Full credit has to go the young Halstead team who despite the score line gave a great account of themselves and showed character and commitment in their performance.

Man of the Match was awarded to Sean Mills Snr. following another impressive performance.

Report by Andy Bray