Some positives for rugby club, in spite of annihilation
By Jim Morgan at Stowmarket on Monday, 1st November 2010.
Arrival at the Stowmarket ground found the Haverhill side warming up with only 16 men in attendance. It was obvious that this could be a bad day at the office, although it was not expected the wheels would so completely fall off.
Haverhill started very well, with Sam Powell, Adam French, Carl Jones and Adam Curtis all showing great skills in breaking through the Stow line and the returning Carl Anderson performing to his usual high standards.
On ten minutes, Haverhill broke through from a Gavin Hope kick forward, skilfully controlled by the charging Brodie Patrick who was unlucky to fall short of the Stow line.
Haverhill attacked again to the Stow line from a great turnover ball by French, resulting in the grounding of the ball, but it was not given as a try.
Stowmarket cleared the ball, but Dan Bishop on the wing collected and ran towards the Stow line, only to be pushed out on the 22 metre line.
From the line, very quick ball by the Stow line resulted in the first of the 16 Stowmarket tries. This was converted to make the score 7-0 on 12 minutes.
Stowmarket attacked again, but some great play from Simon Lester stopped the attack with a hurried clearance. The ball was knocked on in the line by Haverhill and from the resulting scrum, Stow crossed the line for an unconverted try on 14 minutes.
The scrum resulted in Ben Jones being injured and replaced by the only named sub Kevin Carr. With three-quarters of the game left, Haverhill now had no front row replacement or substitutes remaining.
From the restart, Haverhill won a penalty that was converted by Kieron Ewens to make the score 12-3 on 18 minutes.
Haverhill continued to pressurise, winning penalties, but were guilty of not finding touch on a number of occasions and this was punished by Stowmarket with ruthless efficiency, scoring a further four tries before the interval. Haverhill managed a further Ewens penalty just before the whistle, making the score 40-6 at the turn.
From the restart Haverhill won a penalty and the Stowmarket number seven was spoken to for exuberant play. However, within two minutes of the restart, prop Ben Jackson left the field resulting in Haverhill going to 14 men and, with no front row replacement, uncontested scrums.
It now becomes a bit of a turkey shoot, with Stowmarket scoring at will. However some super tackling by Chris Flannery, Brad Gibson, Patrick, Ewens, Powell and Lester temporarily stopped the carnage.
The second row of Adrian Cooper and Kevin Carr were regularly in the mix, not giving up, something which was recognised by the Stowmarket players and crowd after the game.
On 60 minutes the score was now up to 78-6, with Stow scoring three tries in the same number of minutes, but Haverhill continued to play rugby, pushing back into the Stowmarket half.
A cheap shot on the blind side of the referee by a Stowmarket player on Sam Powell was missed, resulting in a stoppage of play and a gentle chat to ask for this sort of play to be stopped.
On 70 minutes, Stow crossed the line to bring the score to 83-6 and then three further quick tries took the score over the ton and to the final whistle, five minutes early.
In general, Haverhill played for the whole game and you can understand why some heads went down at some stages of the game.
However, the apathy of some who refuse to make themselves available to play away from home is a real problem.
Having four front row players they can travel - without this, they will be heading out of the league due to elimination.
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