A Tale of two halves

Harborough's cause was not helped when they lost Jack Smith, to a hamstring injury, early on and the Syston pack combined to touch down after 15 minutes to take a 5-0 lead. Danny Yeow was then bizarrely given a yellow card for colliding with the referee and almost immediately Syston scored again and with the conversion were leading 12-0 after 17 minutes.

A few minutes later this became 19-0 as they scored a pushover try driving Harborough 22 metres! By this time Harborough had also lost captain Charley Standley and Fergus Clarke to injury and this did little to help Harborough’s cause. Syston added another 7 points on 28 minutes but with Yeow returning to the field, Harborough’s reorganised team gradually regained some composure and the half-time score remained at 26-0.

Playing with the slope and the wind in the second half Harborough’s play was much improved and the game was much more even. Harborough tried to establish field position and once in Syston's half break up play with quick tap penalties and strong forward surges. In the forwards, Harborough’s man of the match Lee Butler continually made good metres helped by good work by Jack Digby and Ryan Gibson who put in his usual never-say-die performance.

In the backs there was strong running from Liam Southall and Joel Nance causing nervous moments in the Syston defence but they could not quite break through. On the wings Jake Thornton and Alex Wright, stepping up from the Colts, both put in excellent defensive displays and the return of Fergus Clarke for the last 10 minutes made a huge difference.

Syston did manage to cross the line twice more, the first from broken play and the second with the very last play when there was clear blocking of the defence. This was another lesson in ensuring that you have to win your own ball if you are going to compete in the game.

A slow start and a lack of early cohesiveness meant Harborough were always going to struggle to get into the game. However the determination after half time brought some much needed pride into the team. There were still good individual performances to build on in the coming weeks. The injured lads will need to rest up and get ready for our forthcoming run of fixtures.