Hitchin 3's 24 v Harlow 4's 0

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Well, we arrived and got ready for the early kick off only to receive a phone call from Harlow asking us if we were turning up? They thought they were the home side....

Anyway, we eventually kicked off a 30 minute each way game, initially with uncontested scrums due to players being needed by the 2nd XV. This was quite a disappointment to a Harlow team that prided themselves on their pack's scrummaging ability (not that you would have known it in the 2nd half when we acually had a front row - well done to Messrs Drury and Lord who obviously find playing one game of rugby in an afternoon is not enough!).
The emphasis of the game was to play at pace and stretch the opposition or, alternatively, let Dale flatten them and then get told off by the ref for being too rough! Mr Baines is obviously improving his fitness as he ran for half the length of the pitch with ball in hand to score his second try of the game. Just as well he made it because most of the team had been left behind laughing and wondering if he could sprint all the way without oxygen!
The line out worked fairly well with Phil Hobbs and Andy Sherman winning most of our ball and disrupting plenty of Harlow's. Overall, the pack were far more mobile than their opposite numbers and supported well. The backs were certainly superior in terms of speed, handling and tackling though if we had been prepared to spin the ball wide more often we would have been rewarded with more than the four tries and two conversions that we scored. (Apologies, but post England's victory over the Aussies I can't remember the other try scorers! Feel free to post a reply if you know!). We also kicked possession away more than we should have - perhaps that's being a bit too critical given the overall performance.
A number of substitutions were made at half time, including Tony Fitzpatrick coming on at wing for his first ever 30 minutes of competitive senior rugby.
The Man of the Match award goes to Chris Pike for great support work, ball carrying and harrassing of the opposition throughout the whole game.