13 Try Mayhem

In ideal conditions, but a sloping pitch, Harborough started with real gusto and built a 0-22 lead with tries from Ryan Gibson, Ed Prowse and an Ethan Godefroy brace. George Lee, Jack Digby and Ed Prowse made some penetrating forward surges. Aaron Lyle, Nick Airey and Luke Riordan kept the Shepshed backs pinned in their own half.

The pack dominated the set pieces scrumage and lineout and it looked as though a rout was on the cards. Shepshed had other ideas and after 25 minutes seemed to galvanise their efforts and began to keep possession. They were rewarded with two late first half tries and at the break Harborough led 14-22.

When Shepshed scored three unanswered tries in the first 10 minutes of the second half it looked like the home team would run riot. The Shepshed fly half delivered a perfect cross field kick to their winger who caught it on the full and scored in the corner. Indeed the home side 10 was kicking Harborough off the paddock from tee and out of hand. Shepshed now led 28-22 and had scored the last four tries and Harborough needed to dig deep.

George Lee in a rare second team appearance crashed over to put Harborough within a point, Shepshed responded with a try of their own and moved ahead 33-27. Jake Abblett scored after good forward work and Iain Barnett converted, Harborough now led 33-34. Harborough were guilty of kicking ball directly to the dangerous home team full back, on one such occasion he gathered and ran 50 metres to make it 40-34 with 5 minutes remaining.

This second team are made of stern stuff and whilst they were under the cosh for large parts of the second half they kept attacking at every opportunity. In a series of fly hacks Iain Barnett found himself in the clear to touch down ten metres to the side of the goal posts. The conversion was crucial as the score was 40-39, over it sailed and the game was won. In the final two minutes Harborough played a fantastic off loading game and were unlucky not to score again.

It was a grand game, played in a wonderful spirit and refereed exceptionally well.