Harrow's strong performance produces a win

Remembrance Sunday. At 11am both teams, along with all others at the club, stood silent in memory of those who gave their lives.

Then, kick off, and it was a glorious autumn morning for rugby, with sunshine and soft ground, and the match taking place on the main pitch to boot.

Once again, lack of numbers meant a 13-a-side contest with no flankers. Also, Harrow could not field a trained front row so the scrum had to be uncontested. Added to that, David was on Last Post duty at a nearby church so wouldn't be ready for the start. That meant that Malcolm, who had come to his first training session on Thursday and had his club and RFU membership rushed through in time for the game, would start. In fact he went on to play the full game and have an outstanding debut!

Brendan, starting on the left wing, combined well with Michael and nearly got the first score but was bundled into touch-in-goal before he could get the ball down. Harrow enjoyed a lot of territorial advantage in the opening 20 minutes, with OAs largely unable to get out of their own half, including Malcolm taking a confident catch from a clearing kick as his first real involvement in the game.

Adam made a couple of dangerous breaks, though needed to be subbed off after a knock to the shoulder, fortunately David had just arrived and was able to come on, together with some shuffling around the backs. Soon after, Malcolm found himself with a bit of room to attack and beat a couple of defenders to go over for the opening score. Not a bad start for the debutant! David wasn't able to add the conversation, but 5-0 at least made some impression on the scoreboard following Harrow's opening pressure.

The lead soon doubled when Ted went over from close range after a great break from Kyle. Again the extras were missed from David's boot.

Arasan was getting more into the game and making a lot of good runs and taking several defenders to stop him. And the still-new half-back pairing of Tom and Kyle was really beginning to gel. But equally as impressive was Harrow's defence: the defensive line was working well at repelling OA's attacks before they got far, and great work at the ruck brought about a few turnovers. More than that, Harrow's chase was also on form with a couple of OA breakouts chased down before they could gather any points.

As half time approached, David expertly gathered a clearing kick and made good ground, the ball was taken on well by Jamie and Henry before Ted made the last yards to score his second and Harrow's third. This time Tom attempted the conversion, without success.

Half time, 15-0.

It was wonderful to see Billy up at the club and being fairly active. It'll be some time before he's back playing rugby, but he seems to be relishing the "Tom role" of shouting encouragement from the sidelines and bringing on water for the troops.

OAs were on the front foot at the start of the second half and soon had a try of their own after a period of pressure in Harrow's 22.

For Harrow, it was really important that they would get the next score - especially after they faded in the second half last time out - and indeed they did, with one of Arasan's marauding runs taking him over the whitewash for 5 points (Tom missed adding the extras).

Tackling can sometimes be a key weakness of Harrow's, but not today, in no small part thanks to some amazing work from Arasan and Malcolm. That meant that OAs could not get back in the game and soon Harrow extended their lead though a great team move going through several phases and tens of metres, culminating in David going over for the try, which he converted.

OAs managed to score again but it was a mere consolation as there was no more scoring at the game ended as a convincing win for Harrow, 27-12. OAs did well to put some points on the board in the second half after being dominated in the first half. On Harrow's side, it was this team's finest performance for some time, with great performances throughout the team.