BERFC 34 - 0 Harlow

After ten days without rain, and having experienced rock hard conditions underfoot at training on Wednesday – it was no surprise to regular attendees that overnight rain turned the Barnet pitches into a quagmire once again. With the U16s baggsying the colts pitch for a league game – the U15s were stuck on the first team pitch.

Nevertheless, the rain had passed, the mercury hit double figures quite comfortably, and the sun beat down from a clear sky. After last week’s tommy tomato head – courtesy of the rarefied atmosphere of Harrow – the factor 50 was applied lavishly to the pate of yours truly.

Our opponents, Harlow, play their rugby in Essex Division 2 and have certainly progressed in size and numbers since we last played them over two years ago – due to some hard work on the part of their current coaching team.

With Sam and Harry back in the front row, and Henry, Harrison, Ryan and Freddie available in the backs again, Afam and Liam were restored to the back row alongside the returning Cuddles for undoubtedly the strongest looking U15s starting line-up since our final league victory – with eight subs on the touchline to boot!

The first fifteen minutes was a hard fought slog in the mud. Barnet seemed to have the upper hand territorially, and tried to play through the phases – but came unstuck in the backs as the ball was dropped, or knocked on in the slippery conditions, with the wind also catching hold of stray passes. Harlow fought every yard of ground – with their forwards working well as a unit in the scrum (and mud) – and with the wind behind them, their backs made good use of the elements to clear their lines.

A good passage of play by the Barnet forwards, driving half way up the pitch and recycling well was unfortunately undone by the backs who opted to chip into space from 20 yards out. The ball ran over the try line, was touched down by Harlow, and a quickly taken 22 drop out found an unhappy Barnet pack trudging back down the pitch for a lineout on their own 22.

With a few choice words from the coaches (and the forwards) ringing in their ears, on the next Barnet visit to the Harlow 22 the ball was kept tight, and when Sam drove from 10 yards and recycled, Lawrence covered the remaining 5 metres with ease to open the scoring 5 – 0 .

Five minutes later and it was 10 – 0 . Harlow once again cleared their lines well with a long kick to the Barnet 22, but this time Pav was on hand to return the ball with interest, beating several Harlow players and running back half the length of the pitch before being brought down. Quick ball from the ensuing ruck saw a well worked attack down the blind side with Andreas continuing his conversion from flanker to fullback, showing the defence a clean pair of heels and scoring for the second week in a row.

On the stroke of half time, a nice show and go off of the back of the scrum from Tom Arch and a neat pass back inside allowed Cuddles to ghost through and bring the first half to a close at 15 – 0 .

With a change of personnel at half time Barnet continued to press, and big Joel, having an outing at loose head for the second week in a row put in a strong run, which was finally halted 5 metres short of the line, and in a carbon copy of the first try, the ball was recycled and there was Lawrence following up to bag his brace – and 20 – 0 .

Barnet continued to rotate their subs and the fresh legs told as we began to get the upper hand in the scrums and as the game started to open up the backs began to string some moves together. From one such opportunity the ball was shipped wide to Pav who once again showed his pace to round the Harlow defence and touch down under the posts for 27 – 0 .

With the game nearing it’s close, Scott was unlucky to be denied a try from a line out 5 metres from the Harlow line, with the ref deeming Barnet having knocked on – but from the ensuing Harlow scrum, scrappy ball found its way back over the Harlow try line and River was quickest to react to the loose ball and finish the game at 34 – 0 .

A hard fought game in heavy conditions and credit to Harlow for sticking at it. Tackling/defence was much improved from the previous week.

Another friendly, and another opportunity to experiment with next season in mind. A first half pairing of Arch and Eddie at 9 and 10 gave us food for thought, with Henry restored at 9 for the second half. Big Joel had another good 30 minutes in the front row, as did River in the back row.

Mentions in despatches:
Harry – as the game neared its conclusion, Harlow decided to run a penalty – straight into Harry – ouch!
Big Joel – another good performance in the front row – a strong run setting up a try
Lol – a good all round performance and two well taken tries
Afam – some strong running and a nice offload out of the tackle – someone was obviously paying attention at training
River –another good performance in the back row – and getting on the scoresheet
Scott – unlucky not to get on the score sheet
Andreas – flanker to fullback – twinkletoes scores two tries in two weeks
Pav – not to be outdone by Andreas, with his third try in two weeks – much more direct style – but a lovely little skip/sidestep to set up the play for Andreas to scores
Ryan – smothering tackles in the centre and another player paying attention in training with a couple of nice looping runs

65 of us going on tour next weekend – which I’m sure will be a great success off and on the pitch, irrespective of results.

Bring it on!