Having suffered the narrowest of defeats to Stowmarket in an ill-tempered game earlier in the season Harwich produced no less the thirteen tries by ten different players with Matt Green bagging a hat trick, Joe Francis two and one each for Mark Bowe, Rob Wood, Rob Nicoll, John Skargan, Sam Male, Rob Kemp, James Cullen and Clark Simpson with only nine conversions from Male as he took a while to get his eye in.

Despite the score line it was the visitors Stowmarket who started the stronger with a direct and physical approach keeping the home side on the back foot but were unable to breach their defence as they soaked up the sustained pressure.
The dead lock was broken when Male made a break at pace on the counter attack deep in his own half linking up with Green for a move which was finished off by Francis.

Stowmarket struggled to cope with Harwich’s injection of pace in the game, Rob Wood and Joe Francis slicing through the opposition defence with ease as the home side took control and the tries started coming thick and fast, Bowe catching the defence napping picking up from the back of a ruck to cross the line unchallenged then followed by Wood’s try, breaking the line a long way out went it alone as Francis drew the defence.

It seemed Harwich could do no wrong as they strung together long phases of play, forwards and back linked seamlessly as they played a high tempo game as the tries kept coming next from Green and then Nicoll reaching his best, scoring a characteristic No.8 try as he tidied up at the back of the scrum, Skargon gave a rerun of his try from last week as the big man showed an impressive turn of pace.
Whilst the home side were scoring freely they weren’t having it all their own way as Stowmarket remained defiant in defence which they did turn into attack with great effect in spells which did result in a well worked and deserved try before the break but could not stop Green securing his hat trick and Male bagging his try before the break.

Having amassed an impressive 50 points before the break Harwich were keen to carry on in a similar vein at the restart but the visitors were determined to salvage something from the game and remained defiant as they matched the home side about the park to their credit but they couldn’t prevent conceding a further five tries before the final whistle.

Whilst Harwich produced a long list of point’s scorers this was the result of an all-round team performance and the support of the remaining squad members Richard Smith, Richard Woods, Simon Pitham, Alfie Milne, Sean Mills Snr, Simon Keen, Guy Williams, Michael Green, Ian Fluke, Tom Fitch, Craig Wilson and Captain on the park Sam Jewell.

Harwich man of the match was a difficult decision given the team’s impressive performance and sportsmanship shown as a number of players donned their depleted opponent’s shirts keeping full complement on both sides, non-more than Harwich Skipper Oly Bray who whilst delighted with the victory was on the losing side having played for the opposition throughout the game and to his blushes was given the award.

Report by Andy Bray