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Watford kicked off with a very youthful looking side against a strong wind in a game where they really needed a victory after two successive draws to set up their end of season push to get to the merit final. The far more sizable and experienced, Harrow pack were always going to dominate, though Watford had pace to spare and cleverly at times though also chaotically they attempted to run the ball whenever possible. The Harrow number 8 was causing major damage in the home defence whenever he had the ball and predictably scored the opening try after a short range surge to the line after they had an attacking line out near the Watford line. The conversion was added to give them a seven nil lead. Worse was to follow after half an hour when confusion in the Watford midfield led to the Harrow outside centre scoring under the posts, the conversion was added to leave Harrow fourteen points ahead.
Watford recieved a great lift five minutes before the interval when inside centre Danny Johnson broke from near half way, and his superb mazy run which eventually led over the try line pegged the score back to 14-5 to Harrow. Unfortunately the conversion was not added. The feeling at half time was that though Harrow dominated territory, posession had been pretty equal and they had not made the best use of the huge wind advantage that they had. Further Watford's back three had dealt reasonably well with the often testing kicks they had to field and the whole side had gamely tackled their often bigger opposite numbers time and time again.
Half Time Score - Watford 5 - 14 Harrow
The second half commenced with Watford immediately stepping up a gear and immediately playing deep inside Harrow territory courtesy of the left boot of John Jenkins. They chased and tackled well putting their opposite numbers under severe pressure and were almost always first to the loose ball. This resulted in relatively simple tries for fly half Tom Kiely and centre Stuart Gillies which both arose from Harrow mistakes forced by Watford pressure. As only one two pointer was posted this placed Watford 16-14 ahead of Harrow. The half continued with Watford playing a much more adventurous game and often looking dangerous wide. Harrow though were only two points behind, dominating both set pieces and playing with determined aggression.
With about 15 minutes remaining, scrum half (former first team captain and guesting from exile in the midlands) scored the try of the game all on his own with a jinky elastic run from almost within his own half. Almost as good was left winger Paul Wilson's try where he started deep and ended up showing explosive strength breaking three or four tackles before grounding under the posts.
Both tries were converted and were interspersed with a second score for the Harrow number 8, whom barged over after a penalty near the Watford line. This made the final score a satisfying but never comfortable 31 - 21 to Watford. In the final analysis Watford probably deserved to win as they eventually played to their strengths of pace and youth, whilst Harrow failed to capitalise either on their wind advantage in the first half or their dominance in the restarts throughout. Special mention must go to James Rose and Simon Tucker, normally wingers who played out of position in the pack and acquitted themselves well. In all there was enough potential in the performance to suggest that they can like last year get to the Merit Cup Final, and hopefully go one better and bring the trophy back to Radlett Road.
Watford - Vincent, Smith, Andre, An Other, Rose, Tucker, Ralphie, Bridge (c), Jenkins, Kiely (Tom), Wilson (Gary), Johnson, Gillies, Ricky, Frankish.
Tries - Johnson, Jenkins, Gillies, Wilson, Kiely
Conversions - Kiely (2), Jenkins (1)
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