Epping 2's turn heads with a fine team perfomance

EUCRFC’s ground hosted Harlow’s 3rd team for the first local derby of the season. Although the weather was not up to much, an ample group of supporters turned up for both sides. A quick glance at the EUCRFC’s team would see a similar line up to the week before; a young side led by a few wise older heads. The Harlow side differed greatly with a vast mixture of the usual faces and a few new.
EUCRFC knew that the game would be won by moving the ball around and making use of their fast back line. This however was not the case in the first ten minutes of the game. This period saw Harlow camped in the Epping side’s half. Harlow’s forward pack crashed the ball repeatedly into the EUCRFC defensive line. TC lead the EUCRFC defence, staying strong , mentally and physically which allowed the team to keep the game scoreless in this hard first ten minutes.
This period resulted in belief in their talent and a textbook assist by the outstanding James Hack, with his first touch of the game placed John Gunnell on the score sheet. 5-0.
The EUCRFC forward pack, marshalled superbly by Gunnell continued to work hard, against the larger Harlow pack, in the next quarter of the game with strong ball carries from Andrew Green and Paddy Sheehy, to name a few. This resulted in James Hack placing John Gunnell under the Harlow posts for his second try, with his second touch of the ball. A solid conversion from Liam O’Connor placed the A XV 12-0 up.
Half time saw a few changes to the EUCRFC pack and a very positive team talk.
The second half started a lot slower than the first with many scrums and lineouts. This looked like a ploy from Harlow to control the speed of the game and use their larger pack to their advantage. This was countered when the powerful Jordan Ambrose went crashing over the line with the A XV’s third try via a well worked overlap. This put the score at 17-0.
The eagerness of EUCRFC could be seen now, phases were being pieced together. Lyndsey Dobbin scored under the Harlow posts for the fourth try, after beating several players with great strength. A solid conversion put the score at 24-0.
A tactical substitution saw Lewis ‘Pampers’ Howard taken off momentarily for a “wee-wee”.
The final quarter started with a few EUCRFC substitutions. Captain, Mark Kent, therefore called a penalty kick at the post to be taken to slow the game down slightly and to ensure that structure was maintained. A great kick by Harry Barnes put the score at 27-0.
As the Harlow team started to tire a fortunate bounce from a chip over by Harry Barnes saw a top notch carry from Allan Swales with a one-handed flick to put Liam O’Connor in for the final try of the game.
With a final score of 32-0 against an experienced Harlow side, one can see that there is still a lot to come from the EUCRFC’s A XV.
Ed