IPSWICH MAGPIES 5

HARWICH AND DOVERCOURT 55

Eastern Counties League division two south

HARWICH and Dovercourt maintained their winning ways at Ipswich.

They kicked-off into a very strong wind, which made passing and kicking difficult all afternoon.

After a slow start, Harwich began to take control, with their scrum dominating their larger opponents.

Shaun Fox was able to release the young backs and, after sustained pressure, Robert Edgar scored Harwich’s first try on the left-hand side.

Tommy Kite then added to his tally by sliding over in the right-hand corner after a well-worked backs move.

What followed was a try that had even the Ipswich supporters applauding, when Edgar broke down the right from 50 metres.

He side-stepped his way around the defence, then chipped ahead, regathered his kick and passed to Josh Jones.

Jones avoided a couple of would-be tacklers before passing back to Edgar, who dummied the last two defenders to score.

Adam Eldridge converted for 17-0.

Another try for Kite left Ipswich rattled.

Player-coach Shane Manning then scored a fine team try, managing to avoid two defenders as he ran in from 20 metres.

Ipswich had a purple patch for five minutes and scored an unconverted try.

Harwich responded immediately and Kyran Green scored a converted try to give Harwich a 34-5 lead.

The second half started as the first had finished, with Harwich dominating.

However, due to determined Ipswich defence and Harwich players playing as individuals, it was a while until the half-time score was added to.

When Harwich finally started to attack as a team again, 18-year-old Jones scored a fine try after stepping his way through the Ipswich defence.

Eldridge converted again, for 41-5.

Ipswich threw everything they had at the Harwich try-line.

However, Harwich’s defence was too strong and forced Ipswich to concede an intercept, which was gathered by Green.

He ran 95 metres, evading the chasing Ipswich defence to score his second try of the day, and Eldridge converted for 48-5.

From the restart, Edgar gathered a miss-placed kick-off and ran in his third try of the day, with Eldridge converting to make it 55-5 win.

Stand-out performances came from Edgar, Kite and man-of-the-match Dave Fitch.