Manor 3s labor to a narrow win

After some excellent wins manor 3s came into this week with a confident feel. Injuries, half term and ski trips in the club had meant there was a lot of shuffling between the teams resulting in a very much changed manor third team. Returning players included the man mountain Damore at centre, Crazy Tony Armstrong in the forwards, Grumpy welshman Rhys, the speedy David R and the old warrior tinky.

As manor’s pitches were in a slightly worse state, the third team relocated to Loughton to play there. Many thanks to Loughton for sorting this and hosting us.

Manor arrived nice and early whilst Rhys, after his night sipping champagne with models, seemed in a less than cherry mood as usual….He seemed keen to take over from cushy as the grumpy player of the team this week. Tom Howell led the warm up and the backline settled into its new feel with myself playing my 4th different position in 4 games at fly half.

The game kicked off and harlow started the better with manor unable to gain possession. Eventually manor got the ball up field and a powerful scrum resulted in some good forward phases before the youngest (and biggest) member of the team, Elton powered over for a good score in the corner. Having drawn the short straw to kick for posts I was hopeful of an easier kick to start with but that was not to be with Elton putting the ball down in the corner. It didn’t help matters with the sideline deciding to ignore the kicking tee and me having to drop kick it. Needless to say it didn’t go over!

Harlow kicked off again and manor played the phases well. Eventually off a scrum again, a good break by myself and then quick hands resulted in loosehead, ross going over in the other corner…cue another missed touchline conversion by myself.

Manor then seemed to think the game was over and all they had to do was play at 50%. Harlow didn’t seem keen for this and fought their way back into the game with some powerful drives from their forwards and good kicking from their 10.
At half time Manor somehow found themselves behind (13-10). Harsh words were said and Team manager Werner rung the changes. The second half started and Manor still seemed to be a bit asleep. Eventually a fantastic break from David Ridewood resulted in a trip and yellow card from the harlow centre and manor played the phases to release Rhys to score in the corner (again!). Harlow then kept on battling away and eventually scored a well worked try after spotting a mismatch between their backs and our forwards.

Manor finally started to rally and Damore started to get into the game. At times he seemed to have the entire Harlow backline on his back but kept on going. Eventually good hand from the backline released bobby who went in under the posts for a good score (finally a convertible penalty!). Manor rallied again and good pressure off a line out resulted in Franny getting to the ball first to touch down a good try.

Harlow had one last go at the manor try line but were met by Elton who put in the biggest hit of the day knocking back Harlow’s last attack with a crunching tackle.

Final score-
Manor 3s 27-18 Harlow 2s

scorers: Bobby, Elton, Franny, Ross, Rhys

Overall Manor played poorly but know what they need to do next game. Credit to harlow for playing well though and causing manor some problems.

Humerous incidents in the game included; Paul Porter halfway through the game deciding to start a round of applause for harlow staying contested scrums, Rhys getting yellow carded for being angry and moaning, Bobby needing Tinky to be his dad and help him with his boots before the game, Franny catching the ball of a kick off and then weirdly throwing the ball 2 metres forward in the tackle and finally my attempts at kicking at goal from the touchline.

There were some good performances with Harry Bone, Elton, Francois, David r all impressing. Ant G is also worth a mention after being at work all night before coming to play today. Thanks also to Alfie for stepping in on the wing when we were short of backs. But my man of the match this week goes to Damore who was probably manor’s most dangerous player in attack and defence.

Next week manor are at home taking on top of the table, Rochford 2s.