Harrow escape by skin of teeth

HARROW 16 SOUTHGATE 15

Harrow escaped by the skin of their teeth on Sunday. Replacement kicker John Bennett's coolly struck penalty 10 minutes from time saw them through to the third round of the Middlesex Cup and a visit from Hampstead on December 19.

Similar to the previous week, Harrow failed to quieten an enthusiastic pack who showed just why Southgate look in line for promotion from the Third Division of the Herts/Middx League - two leagues below Harrow.

Despite their passion in defence however, they were not inventive enough in attack and if Harrow had kicked their penalties and taken any of the missed chances they had to score further tries, the margin of victory would have been comfortable.

Harrow went behind to an early penalty and tied the scores at 3-3 when Greg Nowak was successful for the only time in the game after 15 minutes.

Kicking duties passed to John Bennett for the second half.

Harrow fell behind again after 35 minutes when poor marking at the front of the line allowed Southgate's winger to burst through for an individual try. In the process of trying to stop the run Matt Colgate was injured and was replaced by Barrie Whitehead.

Sparked into life, Harrow finished the half in better fashion and Paul Hellard burst through to tie the scores at 8-8 in the 38th minute.

Spreading the ball wider soon paid dividends for Harrow in the second period. Paul Kelly exploited the overlap to outpace the defence for a fine individual try in the corner, but with the conversion failing Harrow were restricted to a five point lead.

Determined Southgate broke Harrow's defence for a try in the 57th minute and the successful conversion put Harrow behind with 20 minutes to go.

As with last week this was Harrow's best part of the game and they started exploiting good work by Brian Rushton at the lineout.

A number of chances went begging, but John Bennett's late penalty finally saw them through despite a late panic when Southgate broke deep from their own half and could well have scored but for steady covering by Harrow's defence.

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