Harrow 5 - 46 BERFC

Herts and Middlesex U16s League Division 3

A lovely sunny October morning with perfect playing conditions underfoot as BERFC U16s made a short trip across country for our second League outing of the season. Our opponents, Harrow, were another team we’d faced many times in recent seasons, albeit in friendlies, and those matches had always been keenly contested.

We’d squeaked a 2 point victory in our last visit to Grove Field at the end of last season – with three back row players putting in a very good shift in the back line on that day – but with league points now at stake this was a far stronger BERFC line up, bolstered by our first choice front row, and a peripatetic set of backs, allowing those stand in centres to return to their rightful positions at the rear of the scrum.

With the late search for a replacement referee successful, BERFC received the dropout with the sun behind them 15 minutes later than the advertised kick off time and were soon in full flow. With the lion’s share of territory early doors the BERFC forwards applied good pressure – and from a scrum on the Harrow 22, the ball made it’s way to Luke, who crossed for the first score of the game and BERFC were seven points to the good, 0 - 7 , with eight minutes played.

To their credit the BERFC boys recognised early in the game where the Harrow threat lay, with some storming cover tackles and line breaks – but the boys picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and dealt with the threat admirably.

The following ten minutes saw good play from both teams, with the forwards fighting a battle of attrition in the middle of the park, until another BERFC visit to the Harrow 22 saw the home team penalised for straying offside at a ruck – and Arch slotted the ensuing penalty to widen the gap to 0 – 10 with 20 minutes played.

Five minutes later the gap increased when Andreas weaved through in his own special way and touched down in the right hand corner to bring the score to 0 – 15.

With half time rapidly approaching, Harrow broke clear from their own 22, but what a tackle from Pav The Knife – which sent an ooooohhhhh through the gathered masses. Harrow recycled well from that position, and crossed with the last play of the half to stay in contention, 5 – 15 .

The second half kicked off with Harrow’s tails up – and to shouts of "this is where the game starts". But this is a BERFC team that have steadily progressed over the past two seasons - not just as a XV, but as a squad, and with fresh legs entering the fray – it was only three minutes before the proud owner of a long pink pair of the aforementioned, Cuddles, reminded us just what strength we do have in reserve as he ghosted through to restore the gap to 15 points, 5 – 20.

Harrow then hit a ten minute purple patch, putting together a sustained period of pressure and threatening the BERFC line – but the defence held firm, with the boys working incredibly hard to keep the opposition at bay, and as they began to push back into Harrow territory once more, Luke found space to cross for his second down the left hand side – 5 - 25 with 50 minutes played.

Five minutes later Liam wrote his name on the score sheet, clearing up from a lineout and flying over in the left corner, with Arch slotting a great conversion from the touchline – 5 – 32 .

Frazer was next up, applying the finishing touch to another good move down the left, and rounding to place the ball under the posts for a straightforward conversion, 5 - 39 and just to keep Arch on his toes, Kadeem also crossed the whitewash in the left hand corner – leaving Arch to produce a carbon copy of his earlier touchline kick to bring the match to a successful conclusion 5 – 46 .

A good battling performance from both teams with Harrow posing a real threat at times and making BERFC fight hard for the victory. A good squad performance from BERFC – with a big mention for those boys who started on the subs bench.

Moment of the match, Pav’s thundering tackle.

Special mention to Mr Quiff for an assured league debut performance at scrum-half.