26th August 2017 Harlow 3’s 38 – 31 Bishop’s Stortford Abbotts

The 2nd outing of the pre-season saw the Abbotts take on Harlow 3’s at their new ground on a hot summer’s day!

Warm up, again went it true Abbotts style (granted it was f’ing hot!!) with a few run through plays before a quick chat with the ref about the new rules (more on that later) and off we went.

Harlow got proceedings underway and the first 10 minutes saw both teams tussle around the midfield with neither making a real threat until the Harlow 10 booted the ball down to our 22 with an unfortunate bounce that allow the Harlow attack enough time to get down to the ball, kick it into the try area and dive on it to administer the first blow. Harlow 7-0 BSRFC Abbotts.

Harlow were quickly back in our 22 and following a yellow card and subsequent penalty were back in under the posts following a quick tab and go with the forwards driving over the line. The 10 slotted the extras and saw us down 14-0 after 30 minutes.

A man down, the game restarted and after a few phases Harlow lost the ball on the half way line, this saw a quick ball out to Nick Clayton who stepped their 12 and 15 to run in under the posts, putting the Abbotts of the board with Dan Hunt slotting the extras to take the score to 14-7.

Frustratingly were quickly back on the board having found a break in play to run the ball in under the posts taking the score to 21-7.

A scrum on their 22 saw and a brilliant drive to the line by Stewart Almond saw the Abbotts attacking their line with only inches to go. A quick pick and go from John Carter got the boys back within reaching distance as the score moved to 21-14 at the end of the first half.

Harlow had brought what looked to be two teams (33 players at a rough count) with them for the game and made some notable changes at half time, one of which made Optimus look small!

The game restarted in a not too dissimilar fashion and saw two quick unconverted tries from the home side taking the score to 31-14 leaving the Mighty Abbotts an even more mighty challenge to turn the game around.

From a disappline perspective we let ourselves down in the second half, 2 yellow cards followed in quick succession and we played a good 6-7 mins with 13 on the field. All was not lost however as Josh Prime picket up the ball on their 22 with a clear shout of “ tackle him he’s fat and slow” from this sideline to which he stepped the first player and run over the next two and crashed over the line to bring the Abbotts within 10 points.

Two quick tries from Nick Clayton at inside centre brought the scores level at 31 apiece with 10 minutes to go.

A rather dubious call by the ref gave Harlow a scrum on our 22 that would see out the last play of the game. The ball came out clear from the scrum and the Harlow 10 broke through the line and scored under the posts to see Harlow agonisingly win it at the death, 38-31.

Bearing in mind that Harlow wanted to play our 4’s we did an almighty job, we let ourselves down at times in defence and discipline but ultimately, we showed character to bring ourselves back in the game it’s just a shame it was lost at the last minunte! A lot of lessons learned and plenty to be proud of with the league only a couple of weeks away.

There were a few notable mentions, Ben Mishan playing his first game at 10 and doing a bloody good job of it (minus the yellow card), Jack Jones playing his first game of rugby, Nick Clayton for getting a hat trick (and the jug, post match), however MoM goes to John Carter who was relentless on the day in both attack and defence, finishing off a well worked play to get the Abbotts a try... and for not getting a yellow card!

DotD is a little more challenging for a number of reasons. 1 – Stewart Almond, whilst he had a blinder of a game in the first half, spent most of the second half telling the official how to do his job, 2 – Cheaton for his yellow card, albeit I’m not sure it was actually mean’t for him (sorry mate!) 3 – Bran, for cancelling on the day after deciding he was too tired following an early morning run. Finally... Charlie Harris, well.... because its Charlie, but also for getting what will be his first of many yellow cards this season for a tip tackle even though the Harlow player jumped over his head and feel on the floor whilst he was laying down in a ruck.

Finally, laugh of the day has to go to Jack Jones playing at flanker, during one particular scrum we found Jack lining up with the backs ready for the ball to come out only for the backs to point out that he should be in the scrum that’s already formed and being contested!

Our next pre-season friendly is against OA’s 2nd September at BSRFC. We had a great turnout on the sidelines for the lads this week and it would be great to get those kind of numbers again.. Especially when playing at home against OA’s! Please come down and support the lads.

Team:

1 – Stewart Almond
2 – Maz Benz
3 – George MG
4 – Matt Slade
5 – Jesus
6 – G Pearman
7 – John Carter (1 Try)
8 – Charlie Harris ( yc)

9 – Cheaton (yc)
10 – Ben Mishan (yc)
11 – Michael Reynolds
12 – Nick Clayton (3 Tries)
13 – Rockwell
14 - John Pickbourn
15 – Dan Hunt

16 – Prime (1 Try)
17 – Ross Kitchen
18 – Nathan Chapman
19 – Jack Jones
20 – Ben Pickbourn
21 – Kirby