With the first game of the New Year, Writtle welcomed Harwich RFC to Paradise Rd. Writtle still suffering from a long injury list and unavailability's ,fielded a new look team with 4 players making their first team debuts. Due to a late cry off, Writtle only had 14 players ready to go, 30 minutes before kick off. A call to the 2nd team squad, saw Tom Adams come to the aid of the team.
Kick off saw the home side start the game attacking up the pitch, which saw Harwich take the game to Writtle straight away with strong running and good movement of the ball. Writtle started to conceded penalties & ground, and Harwich were rewarded with their first try & conversion. The restart saw much of the same pressure from Harwich, with Writtle struggling to get a hold of the game, Harwich worked the ball well to break the Writtle line again for the second try. It looked like it was going to be a long afternoon for the hosts. The next start of play saw Writtle at last start to put together some phases and test the Harwich defence. With both sides now settled into the game, Writtle started to get a few breaks. A Nick Bailey interception was shut down, but it gave Writtle the attacking input which eventually led to Flynn Williams first try, Adam Woodgate added the points. Buoyed by this Writtle kept up the pressure with Williams adding his second try. The home side where now back in the game.
The second half saw a better start for Writtle, their scrums had settled down with ball been won, albeit under pressure and the arrival of Jamie Doe saw the lineout possession improve. The young Harwich side kept to their style of play and as the second half went on, they added a 3rd try and were starting to get on top of the game again, with them wasting a couple of chances to put the game out of reach, a yellow card for the Writtle added to the pressure. With only 4 minutes reminding, Harwich were defending their line, only to see Williams dummy and slip through to score his 3rds, Writtle had the chance to take the lead but the kick for goal hit the upright and bounce to safety. The final few minutes saw Writtle give away a penalty, with time on the clock up it was the last play of the game, Harwich decided to go for the long range attempted at goal, it was their second row, stepping up to take the kick, which saw it stuck well but just falling short, but it hit the cross bar and bounce back into play, Harwich reacted quicker to secure the ball, a quick drive saw them score the winning try to the disbelief of Writtle.
Game over bonus point win for Harwich.