Time runs out for Colts at Teddington (eventually)

Harrow Colts visited Teddington in what was a potential title decider, even at such an early stage of the season.
With both sides having won both their opening games – it was a chance for one of the sides to take a decisive lead at the top of the table going into Xmas.
Teddington started the brighter, and an early foray into Harrows half saw Teddington go over to the right of the pots – some poor tackling not helping Harrows cause. Conversion missed 5-0 Teddington ahead.
The score seemed to wake Harrow up, and with Andrew Nurse playing at S/H , some sniping runs and quick ball meant Harrow began to get on the front foot, and with an excellent move in the back line which saw centres Usaia Vunivalu and Ben Hudson combine with full back will Moran to create an overlap, and he put Lucca Ellis away down the left for a score in the left hand corner. Kick missed, but scores all level at 5-5.
Harrow then went ahead after 28 minutes, with a quick tap penalty on the left hand side, being shipped out to Lucca Ellis again, and this time he glided in and under the posts, and with Andrew Nurse converting Harrow lead 12-5 nearing half-time.
Back came Teddington, and through some driving forward play, they then created a gap for the centre to burst through, and he lumbered in from 10 metres out just to the left of the pots for a Teddington score, conversion successful – and at half time the game was evenly poised at 12 points a piece.
The second half was a bit more attritional, but the quality of the rugby and the intensity was very high, both defences were performing well, and it was clear that the match would be decided by either a moment of magic or controversy…
With time ticking away Harrow again were close to the Teddingtons line, and after a number of penalties and catch and drive line-out attempts Harrow got another penalty about 30 metres out just to the right of the posts – knowing that the match would be close harrow decided to take the kick at goal, and Andrew nurse stroked the ball over to give harrow a slender 15-12 advantage with only a handful of minutes remaining.
However, the remaining minutes seemed to take an age to complete, and what was thought to be about 10 minutes of time remaining turned into about another 18 minutes of playing time. Teddington were now in the ascendancy, and harrows defence was having to repel a number of attacks, and despite clearing their lines a couple fo times Teddington somehow managed to keep getting back into Harrows 22, and with seconds remaining (or about 8 minutes later than expected depending on your timepiece) they breached the Harrow line one final time, and with an easy conversion took a 19-15 lead. No time remaining and with the conversion came the final whistle and a first defeat in the league for Harrow this season.
Whilst the extra time was frustrating, we need to learn to close games out, and also potentially missed a couple of opportunities where final passes didn’t go to hand, or different options may have resulted in a greater number of points – but if we had nothing to improve on, as coaches we would be redundant – and nobody wants that !!
Despite the result, the overall performance was good – we welcomed back a few returning players from last season – and with a number of strong fixtures in the Cup early in 2016 the squad strength in depth is looking at its best since the start of the season.
Happy Xmas and new Year to all – and see you in 2016.