HARWICH AND DOVERCOURT OWLS 33

STANFORD LE HOPE 0

Women’s NC South East East Two

ALTHOUGH they had had a dip in form over the last three games, the Owls were back at full strength for the first time in several weeks.

With the visit of a team leading the league, Harwich had to be on top form for this match and from the kick-off showed they were up for it.

Stanford were immediately under pressure and, within five minutes, Abi Cutts charged over for the first try.

The visitors started to exert some pressure on the home 22 but a solid defensive structure and strong tackling soon quashed their attack.

The Owls were now forcing Stanford into making mistakes and, from a dropped ball, it was quickly through the back line to Yas Amber, who waltzed past three defenders before side-stepping the full-back to score under the posts.

From a penalty, the Owls then went through some good phases of play, allowing Mimi Montgomery to dive over to score.

The pressure grew on the visitors, who lost their captain for the last ten minutes of the first half for a yellow-card offence.

Leading 19-0 at the break, the Owls had to resist some initial pressure as Stanford tried to assert some authority on the game but, once again, the home team absorbed the pressure.

A good delayed pass from Montgomery put Annalise Allan through a gap in the visitors’ defence.

She broke through a couple of tackles before handing off the last defender as she went over to score.

Stanford soon had the home team on the back foot and, from a series of rucks, were stopped a foot from the home team’s line by some ferocious tackling.

This proved to be their last real attempt at scoring as Harwich again demonstrated their attacking qualities.

A powerful run from the back of a scrum by Tricker set a ruck in the Stanford half.

Allan was then tackled inside the Stanford 22 and, from her offload, Debbie Lammond showed a great running line to score her first-ever try.

The Owls kept the pressure on the visiting defence for the remainder of the game without adding to their total of five tries, three of which were converted by Allan.