Harwich Battle hard with little reward

Harwich visited Felixstowe in what was always going to be a tough fixture based on an ever set of improving results by Felixstowe over the season.

Harwich took a team with a mixture of experience (old age) and youth, but ultimately a decent 1-18 taking to the park.

Harwich started well and managed to camp inside the Felixstowe 22 for a period of time and despite winning a sequence of penalties could not find a way past a stubborn defence and eventually the ball was turned over. This was then followed by a similar period of play, but this time in the Harwich 22 which despite some resolute defence saw Felixstowe eventually go over to score first and lead 7-0. Harwich then went back on the attack and after thrusts close to the try line by Mark Sander Crook and Mike Cowley, Craig Tierney went over to put Harwich with 2 (conversion missed). The next 20 minutes were evenly contested with both team spurning chances but Harwich were caught napping just before half time and conceded two soft try’s to see Felixstowe stretch out to 17-7 at the break.

The second half was much of the same, with maybe Felixstowe edging the encounter, however Harwich stayed strong defensively and eventually after a series of penalties close to the Felixstowe line decided to put the ball through the hands and scored a lovely try out wide through Rob Page which was handsomely converted by Ryan Boyne to bring Harwich with 5 and still 20 minutes left. However despite huffing and puffing nothing really developed during this period and two late Felixstowe scores saw a final score of 27-12.

A strong effort from all, Felixstowe deserving winners but maybe the score line slightly flattered them. Captain for the day Josh Edwards said ‘a fully committed effort by all, far more positives from the game than negatives and a special mention for MOM Jack Mulligan, great to see youth coming through and Jack is really stepping up and starting to boss the old farts in front of him’.

Harwich 2nds have one league left on April 14th which is at home, and if successful will see them finish the season in 3rd place.

Report by Magic Mike