A Hard Day at Harpenden

Drawn against our rivals from League 2 in the Cup, Fullers traveled to Harpenden knowing that they were in for a tough day.
The game started well for Fullers, with Josh Dawood, playing on the right wing, finishing off a flowing move by touching down in the corner. The conversion was just too far out for Eamon, so Fullers led 5-0.
Sustained pressure by Harpenden led to them scoring a try, which they managed to convert, and so led 5-7. With 8 minutes to go Fullers gave away a penalty in Harpenden's half. The ran through their penalty move, and Callum went forward to tackle their big ball carrier. A sickening crack left Callum on the floor, and the game was delayed while the paramedic on site carried out neck injury assessment, before Callum was eventually carried carried by stretcher to the physics room.
The delay had effected both teams, but after some pressure by Harpenden Fullers were the next to score, with Lewis crashing over. Another difficult conversion went begging, and Fullers led 10-7 ay half time.
The second half started with Fullers applying the pressure, but after 10 minutes they started to run out of steam. A break away try by Harpenden took the wind out of their sails, and the conversion made it 10-14.
As Fullers tired they began to give away more and more penalties. Harpenden continued to run the ball from these, and although Fullers counter attacked they could not get the ball out to their backs to take advantage.
With five minutes left Harpenden finally made the most of the penalty count and crashed over for an unconverted try. Shortly after Kush was left on the floor after a ruck, with a bloody nose. A further assessment by the paramedic led to him waiting on his back in the pitch for an ambulance, and the game was abandoned with two minutes to go.
A sad way to go out of the County Cup in our first year of the tournament, but food for thought with Harpenden still to play in the League.

Jon Horastead.

PS. For the record, both Callum and Kush were fine, both released from hospital that evening. Callum had a bump to the head and mild concussion, while Kush had a broken nose.