London Welsh vs Harrow

First league match at ODP for these players

Our LW2 game against Harrow was a close affair with many positives.

Despite torrential rain the day before, we were greeted with blue sky and sunshine and the ground in excellent condition.

Emboldened by a resounding victory by the national team against Australia the day before, the Welsh team took to the pitch in determined mood. This was quickly converted into points when Welsh turned stout defending 2m from their line into a searing attack with Mateo running end to end to land the first try of the game. The score was doubled soon after with quick ball being whipped from one side of the pitch to the other and into Max’s hands followed by a surge of speed and over the line.

Harrow fought back, but not without some excellent tackling from the Welsh team with Danny and Rhys Philips causing Coach Charlie to exuberantly cross the touch line and on to the pitch. None of this could distract for long with Charlie Club putting in some excellent tackles and Max landing our third and fourth tries. There was further competition for the role of referee between Gareth (in his fake Argentina top) and a couple of the Harrow team. Gareth used his whistle and some hard Welsh stares to reassert his authority on the game.

At half time we joined all other players for a poignant minute’s silence to pay respects to those gave their lives for their country.

The second half continued with even more great defending from Welsh. There were some well built players on the Harrow team and time and time again all the Welsh team stepped up and brought them down to earth. Harrow pulled out a 2 try lead to make it 6-4 but great resilience and determination resulted in a hattrick of tries from Max (5th) and Alexander Knight weaving his way around the Harrow defence to land the 6th and 7th to seal the game.

Further excitement was provided for spectators as Piers began some interesting warm up moves in preparation for his refereeing role in the follow on LW1 game.

So, an entertaining and evenly matched game with some excellent individual and team performances both in attack and defence.