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BLUES DONE AS RUGBY WORLD CUP PLAYOFFS SET.
Harlesburg shows no mercy in crushing defeat.

It wasn't even close.

The Locke Harbour Blues had kept themselves alive yesterday with a 22-21 win over Liverpool, England to keep them within reach of a playoff spot, however against Harlesburg, the team they had to beat to make it into the playoffs, the Blues just flopped.

From the start you could tell that the Harlesburg team had come out to play. Despite the hometown advantage that the blues had, it was the Harlesburg team that fed off the crowd. Off the kickoff Harlesburg lock Christopher Danist caught the ball and set up a maul. The blues instantly were sucked in without realizing that though most of the Harlesburg forwards were joining the maul, a few were trailing off to the weak side. Moments later scrumhalf James Hargreaves ripped the ball and quickly passed it out to the Harlesburg flanker Micheal Frederickson. Frederickson quickly rushed by the maul and steamrolled Locke Harbour blindside winger Richard Anderson. With 8-man Thomas Page in support, Frederickson ran headlong towards Blues fullback Josh Meolo. Frederickson made no mistake by making Meolo commit and then popping a pass out to an onrushing Page who grabbed the ball and ran the rest of the way for an early 5-0 lead for the visitors, after Casey Piper missed the convert.

Locke Harbour fans, for the most part were silenced, save the occasional Locke Harbour Dragon fan who one could clearly hear heckling from the now near silent stadium.

That try seemed to confuse the Blues as on the ensuing kickoff the Harlesburg forwards caught the ball and set up a ruck. Again they were able to suck in the Blues until their scrumhalf, James Hargreaves quickly picked up the ball and ran with it past the Blues scrum. As he was about to be tackled by Blues fullback Meolo, he popped the ball to Harlesburg flyhalf Casey Piper who could easily run it in for the score and, with the convert, a 12-0 lead.

Harlesburg scored one more converted try at the 15 minute mark before the Blues were able to have any success at all. In the 36th minute the Blues had marched down to the Harlesburg 5 yard line, after a knock on by Piper. As soon as the ball was fed into the scrum the Blues pack pushed the Harlesburg squad back until Blues 8-man Bob Erickson was able to pick up the ball and down it to close the gap to 19-5 at the half.

In the 2nd half the Blues started off strong with outside centre Jason Uruguay breaking through the line and scoring in the 46th minute to bring the Blues even closer with the score now 19-10. That score however seemed to wake Harlesburg up as they scored 2 more converted tries, and dominated the game for basically the remainder of it.

As the final whistle blew the Locke Harbour South crowd booed without restraint their team while Harlesburg players celebrated their victory which clinched them the final playoff spot in Group 1.

The blues were able to score a try on this run, however it was their opponents that were in control of much of the match.