Written by David Vaughan

The previous week had seen Wold come up short away to West Norfolk in what was a bruising encounter and Wold first game in London NE Three ending in a 42 - 10 defeat. On the back of that Wold had wanted to get some points on the board in their first home game of the season, but it was clear from the team sheet that it was going to be a tough afternoon and so it proved
Adam Smith was the only survivor from the previous weeks front row and a total of five other changes in personnel, combined with positional changes throughout the team, forced by injury and unavailability meant Wold had their backs to the wall right from the start of the match
Harlow were seven points up after only thirty seconds when straight from the kick off, the ball was gathered by Wold in their 22 and as the ball went out along the line, a Harlow interception saw a try right under the posts leaving an easy conversion.
Ten minutes later a Southwold lineout saw a throw missed at the back of the line and again Harlow pounced on Wolds mistake, cleared up the loose ball and quickly moved the ball along the line to score wide on the left
Wold rallied and earned a penalty just on Harlow's 22, but the kick for the corner missed touch and lead to a Harlow drop out which actually worked in Wolds favour as the poor kick was gathered well and moved quickly out to Josh Crick in the centre who drew two Harlow defenders and fed the ball to Ben Balls on the left wing who dived over spectacularly to score his first try of the season in the corner and the deficit was cut to just seven points.
Wold continued to press and were right back in the game until disaster struck from a third Wold error five minutes before half time. A poorly taken penalty was very wide of the Harlow posts and ended up with their right winger on the Harlow line who kicked an enormous clearance which found touch 60 metres down the pitch, and from the resulting Wold lineout, Harlow stole the ball and again scored a fine try after some quick handling out on the left wing. It was quite a shock for Wold who had been pressing hard to level the score and the shock was made worse when on the stroke of half time Wold conceded a penalty in their own 22 and Harlow chose the scrum option, won good ball and scored their fourth try for a bonus point again wide on the left to leave the score 5 - 22 at half time to the visitors
Wold pressed hard at the start of the second half with the wind behind them, but couldn’t convert the chances into points until the 60th minute when a good forward drive following a Sam Webb trademark catch at the back of the line saw Tom Shea who had come on as a sub score his first try of the season and his debut try for Wold 1st XV
The conversion was missed, but Wold continued to be dominate until Josh Williams was harshly yellow carded for an infringement in the loose and Wold were down to fourteen for the final ten minutes

Wold still battled on but were now on the back foot but did win a penalty in their own 22, but instead of clearing their lines they ran the ball and Harlow seemed more ready for this than the surprised Wold backs and the tactic proved disastrous as Harlow scored their second intercepted try of the match.
The final score of 10 - 27 to Harlow was a fair result but it must be said it was due more to Wold errors than the domination and creativity of the visitors
Wold will have to go back to the training ground and work hard and long to improve their first two performances of the season but playing poorly by their own high standards means there is so much more to come from the team and things can only improve, hopefully sooner rather than later

Arn the Wold !