East London secured their league status with an emphatic home win against promotion chasers Harlow. The home side went into the game knowing that only a win could guarantee them safety from relegation and that anything short of a win would mean a nervous wait for other results to come in from around the league.

As it turned out, it took a dominant second half display to dispatch a Harlow side that knew only a win would keep alive their own promotion campaign.

The game started excellently for East London, a try after two minutes from centre John Lynn, who followed up with the straight-forward conversion, meant that the resulting kick-off would be the first time Harlow could take play into the East London half. If East London thought that early points would signal a comfortable afternoon however, they were soon proved wrong. The following 20 minutes saw the visitors pile on the pressure and convert two penalties to take themselves within a point before taking the lead with an unconverted try in the left corner.

This try sparked East London back into life and they finished the half on top and in the lead after tenacious tackling in midfield from Richard Gregory and Will Masters forced the visitors to spill the ball. Lynn snapped it up and flicked a pass to influential scrum-half Scott Sarson and he did the rest, showing defenders a clean pair of heels to finish beneath the posts. The simple conversion gave East London a precarious looking three point half-time lead.

The second half saw the East London pack produce the best 40 minutes of their season. The front-row of partnership of Steven Deszo, Will Masters and man-of-the-match Richard Clarke dominated the scrum, winning several against the feed and the hearts of the Harlow pack must have sank as Deszo and Masters were replaced by Mark Drury and Eoin Smaill who proved equally effective in stealing possession. One such scrum saw the ball spread swiftly to Lynn who stepped inside the scrambling defence to touch down and again convert his own try.

The home side wouldn’t have it all their own way though, the Harlow pack regrouped manfully and kept possession expertly for a number of phases before crashing over the line from short range. With the conversion missed, the gap was now just five points. It got worse for East London before it got better with lock Groombridge sent to the sin bin for an offence at a ruck.

The home supporters needn’t have worried though as East London proceeded to score 15 unanswered points in Groombridge’s 10 minute absence. First, Lynn slotted a penalty to take East London to an eight point lead before the forwards reasserted their domination, turning-over a Harlow scrum while a man short. Michael Anderson picked up and headed off for the corner, swatting away two would-be tacklers in the process and, just as it seemed he would be forced into touch, he looped a clever pass inside to Sarson who completed the job for his second try of the afternoon. The missed conversion from wide on the left was Lynn’s only miss of the day. As if to make up for it, Lynn was soon completing his hat-trick, straightening the attack in midfield only to find nobody home in the visitors defence and canter in beneath the posts.

Harlow did regroup again for a while, battering away at the home defence around the fringes and through midfield but the East London defence was in defiant mood, Pierce Young, Dan Bracken and Billy Clayton in particular putting in some big hits.

Much to the delight of the home supporters, the game ended with a sixth East London try and one to savour for the pack. Back to full strength with the return of Groombridge, East London kicked to the corner for the final play of the game and, ignoring the cries for the ball from the try hungry backs they rumbled ominously to the Harlow line and sealed the result with a try credited to arch poacher Anderson. Fittingly, the last action of the game saw Lynn step up and nonchalantly stroke the conversion over from the right touchline to take his personal tally to 28 points.

This result saw East London complete a great escape that barely seemed plausible at the beginning of February when they propped up the table. Since then, hard work in training and some inspirational performances have led to a string of impressive results that has seen East London climb above four other teams in the table and means that the squad can look forward to next season with renewed confidence.

Tries: Lynn (3), Sarson (2), Anderson
Cons: Lynn (5)
Pen: Lynn (1)

Man of the Match: Richard Clarke

Match Report by Matthew Pilkington