Harlow 3/4s 41: Bishops Stortford 4s 36

Match report November 17th 2012
Harlow 3s 41: Bishops Stortford 4s 35

After some league shenanigans, with the 3rds opposition pulling out Friday night, and our league opposition pulling out Thursday evening and no 5s game we headed off with a rare 20 players to play Harlow 3/ 4s in a friendly.

The game started off with a foreboding amount of pressure from the big Harlow pack ably assisted by the referee giving (counted by someone else as well as me) 10 penalties against us in the first 10 minutes – holding on, diving over, not rolling away etc which was to continue for 50 minutes, to my untrained eye, significantly more against one team than the other. Fortunately however, when the ball was passed out to the Harlow backs they had a very fortuitous habit of dropping the ball in the tackle which allowed Mr Doolan to run most of the length of the pitch before a few offloads to “I’ve finally turned up” Gus who had run the diagonal length of the pitch to deservedly take the first points of the day.

The 2nd quarter followed in a similar pattern of Harlow pack dominance but our backs scoring the points in the form of 2 try Gus and 2 try John Doolan. Mr Johnny Lewis chipped a lovely kick up the wing, run onto by Gus to finish by running half the length of the pitch to then stroll in and score as far as from the posts as if Harlow were paying him…..! Other memorable events were our Mr Doolan be put into space by Tubsy, run 50 metres, then slip in between 3 Harlow defenders to score under the posts (Gus take note!)

Half time was 24 – 6 to us, Harlow being awarded 2 penalties by the ref in front of our posts. It was a strange half time with it evident that the referee di d not particularly like Stortford, Cam performing his anti ref strop and being removed from the field of play for his own good, shouting “I don’t care if you give me a yellow card, I’ll walk before you do”. To be fair, whilst slightly stroppy, he did sum up how most of us felt after an extremely biased seeming first half.
The 3rd quarter was a very different game. Harlow brought on some very decent backs, in particular full back and wing. These players also inspired their other backs who started running with much more purpose. The referee however decided to make more and more extremely strange decisions. In this period, embarrassingly on our behalf, but to Harlows credit they scored 5 tries, some very good moves with very strong running from their wing on several occasions.

Three refereeing moments stuck in my mind during this quarter. Firstly, a Harlow player hurt his neck going down with a shout and in clear neck pain. The game then moved away and back towards him but which time 2 Harlow players, me and Brownie were shouting at the ref to stop the game. He did, remonstrated with me and Brownie for 30 seconds for shouting at him before moving to the player lying on the floor to see if he was ok which fortunately he was.

The second ‘special ref’ moment was the ball being kicked out by us, about 14 (7 from each team) players waiting for the lineout at the right spot and then an optimistic Harlow player took a quick lineout 10 metres closer to our line. We watched the player run knowing the quick lineout could not be taken, to see the referee blow the whistle for a try. Harlow players looked as surprised as us. Being the responsible captain, I mentioned the law regarding 2 players of each team in place meaning the line was formed thus a quick throw could not be taken to be told “its up to me when a lineout can be taken”. I proposed sending him a copy of the law book which he ignored.

I was unfortunately involved in the third moment, again stupidly running at a suitably large player who used my momentum to swing me up then down onto my head. A Harlow player lying over me after said “stay here it’s much safer” as I laid there waiting for my neck to hurt and being pleasantly surprised it didn’t before getting up to hear the referee say that driving a player head first into the floor was a penalty, but not a card as he had not let go of me. He then had a change of heart and reversed the decision as Stortford players had voiced the opinion driving a player head first into the floor was not really on. Slammed headfirst into the floor and conceded a penalty. Impressive, and a first in 15 years of rugby.

This culminated a few moments later in Cam, me, Brownie and Johnny Lewis losing our cool with the ref and the prospect of walking off raised (also the first in 15 years to me), which thankfully did not happen, largely thanks to (embarrassingly by Mr Calm himself, Brownie) talking Mr Lewis and me from leading my team off in protest at the increasingly shambolic 60 minutes refereeing.

The final quarter of the game was probably the best with (Clarkey injured) uncontested scrums and 2 tries to us, 1 to them with possibly the referee feeling a bit sheepish and showing us equality with the whistle leading to an even and enjoyable 20 minutes. Dave Brunner particularly was excellent in this period makes numerous holes in the Harlow defence, but not quite able to get the final pass away, and eventually scoring a try (under the posts!), converted by Tubsy. The final whistle however was blown with Harlow winning by 6 points, 41 – 35 with a genuinely good and close last quarter.

Other memorable moments include Matt Free getting hammered catching a restart but calmly putting the ball back; Cam running – escaping a tackle and then visibly realising he had to keep running (about 80 metres all in); and our pack arguing with 2nd row and no 8 players involved with accusations of “not being fit to wear the shirt” and “not trying hard enough at the rucks” which, whilst born of frustration and desire perhaps, could have been voiced differently.

Man of the match goes to John Doolan for his regular running the length of the field, although Dave Brunner ran him very close, and Johnny Lewis for (if nothing else), throwing 5 dummies in aabout 10 steps.

Incredibly, Dick of the day also goes to John Doolan, for trying to charge down their penalty in front of the posts mistaking it for a conversion! Gus a close second for jug avoidance after his hat trick – “I’ll see you back at the club” to never be seen again…………! John, box of beers next week please!