Youth and talent fail to overcome age and experience

Harborough’s youthful second team was given a hard lesson in playing to the conditions by the experienced Syston thirds on Saturday.
The visitors’ simple game plan was tailor-made for the windy, wintery conditions of Northampton Road and secured them a 13-25 victory in the Leicestershire Premier League.
Having won the toss, Syston elected to play into the wind first half, and took the fight straight to Harborough with strong running from forwards and inside backs, and tenacious scrapping at the breakdown.
Bizarrely, instead of using the elements to gain territory, Harborough saw the boot as a weapon of last resort, choosing to run most of their possession which was too often turned over in contact. Although the spirit of the Harborough players was commendable, more brains and less brawn might have been a wiser approach.
Having struck an early penalty, Syston were first to cross the whitewash after ten minutes as mounting pressure finally cracked Harborough’s resistance, and a forward broke several tackles to score out wide.
A wind-assisted penalty from Danny Yeow got Harborough on the board, and on the stroke of half-time Harborough’s backs finally showed what they could do with quick possession. Swift hands released Sam Patterson with half a yard on his man; this was all he needed to sprint home from the halfway. Sadly the conversion was missed and the half time score was 8-8.
With such a strong wind in their faces second-half, the men in black hoped to be entering the second period with a little better than parity. However they took the fight immediately to Syston and spent the first ten minutes in their opponents’ half, but their defence held firm and Harborough left unrewarded.
Syston, on the other hand, were ruthless in taking any points which came their way. They scored a second try through their forwards when a ruck on Harborough’s five metre line was disrupted, the ball squirted loose and it was a player in black and blue who was quickest to react, and touched down despite a despairing last-gasp tackle from Jobe Jeacock.
Although he missed the conversion, Syston’s youthful full-back added three penalties in succession, as his team used the wind to camp in Harborough’s half, which effectively sealed the contest. An impudent dropped goal from the visitors’ fly half added insult to injury.
Defeated but unbroken, Harborough launched a series of late attacks from around the field. With the final play of the match Joe Whitworth, returning from injury, barrelled through Syston tackles on the left wing and managed to touch down before taking out the corner flag.
Club press officer and second team winger Charlie Standley said: ‘A 13-25 defeat was frustrating for a few reasons. We played some excellent rugby, but only in patches; there was some great talent in black shirts but we need to learn to win ugly as it’s a long winter and there won’t be many firm pitches until April. Fair play to Syston: they had a simple plan, executed it very well and were full value for the win.
‘Credit must go to our forwards in particular though, who fought like Trojans against a much bigger pack, and had the better of the set-pieces all day. Lee Butler in particular was tigerish at the breakdown and with ball in hand.’