A trip to Twickenham is enough to whet the appetite, even if this one was a mile or so down the road from HQ.

It was another glorious autumn morning for rugby. Harrow briefly threatened to field 15 players, which would have been amazing for such a small squad, but nevertheless 14 eager young men turned up, and the teams agreed a 13-a-side contest without flankers.

Harrow were able to field a trained front row this week, which allowed for contested scrums, but Twickenham were strong in this area and won the early scrums with dominant performances. This put the pressure on Harrow in open play but they withstood some early pressure well, though some handling errors led to further scrums and yet more pressure!

Nevertheless, the defence held firm, and the scoreboard remained untouched, until the 16th minute when a free kick on the Twickenham 22 was fed first to Connor to make some inroads then to Arasan who powered over, and David nailed the conversion to make it 0-7.

Harrow were now in the ascendancy and kept making good ground from a series of tap-and-go penalties. Henry found some space and fed Malcolm who made his way over the line but lost control of the ball in contact before it could be grounded.

The next score, came from Twickenham, as they levelled it up with a converted try, but Harrow soon retook the lead with Malcolm going over from close range. Once again, David added the extras. 7-14 and that was half time.

Adam had started on the bench, while he was still recovering from a shoulder knock the previous week, and he came on for Henry at half time. But it wasn't long before Henry was called back into action as Harasan had to come off with a hamstring injury. The re-jigged back line had Adam on the right wing, Malcolm on the left and Brendan in the centre with Henry.

Harrow had found their way back into the scrummaging contest, and it seemed that Twickenham were starting to lose their way as they conceded a succession of penalties, not least through Jamie's excellent jackalling, and good work from Ted and Tom released Brendan who finished adeptly with a couple of defenders to beat. This conversion was too much for David and the scoreboard read 7-19.

The second half was as tightly fought as the first, but Twickenham scored a converted try following some defensive confusion, and another following a breakaway down the left. It was David's excellent covering tackle which kept the try in the corner and made the conversion practically impossible which meant the scores level as the minutes ticked away.

Harrow weren't rattled by conceding the two tries, and took the game to Twickenham in the final minutes, despite being without possibly their strongest runner in Arasan, and Adam almost having to play one-handed. Indeed Adam somehow managed to play through the pain to make an outstanding defensive tackle, and also to make some good ground going forward.

One penalty given in front of the posts arguably shone a light on Harrow's lack of game management experience as the opportunity to kick the points was spurned. The ensuing drive saw Harry come desperately close to grounding the ball at the base of the post, but it wasn't enough to convince the referee, so the scores remained level.

David picked up a niggle and had to come off, but Kyle expertly covered full-back and appeared to have the chance to run in the winner from a clearing kick, but failed to gather the ball cleanly.

With the clock nearly dead, Harrow won a final penalty around the 22, but not at a very favourable angle. The right decision was made to go for the posts, and Tom made a decent contact but it just tailed away from the posts. The ball was still in play and in an intensely exciting last few moments, Twickenham tried to run it from deep in the own territory, then had the ball turned over and Harrow looked to attack before an accidental offside brought the game to a close. Full time, 19-19.

Mixed emotions for Harrow, who must have thought they had the game won, but still they dug deep to avoid defeat in a match that in the past might have slipped away.

Massive thanks once again to Billy, who despite his long-term injury, came to support his team-mates and shout his encouragement from the touchline and at breaks in play. A real bonus to have around.