Second Team Try Fest at Long Buckby

Second Team Serve Up A Try Fest at Long Buckby
A fantastic second half display by the Second Team blew their opposition away in the sunshine and wind at Long Buckby. A 60 points to 20 victory was good value for a much improved second period after a disappointing first half display.
The Blackcats conceded a try 2 minutes in after failing to take the kick off then losing their own line out ball. This double whammy of errors gave Long Buckby the platform to drive over and score through some powerful forward play. Not a great start!
Harborough rallied well and soon got themselves back in the game with a try of their own but the first half was littered with unforced errors and poor execution. Strong carries from Tom Lockwood, Josh Jones and Lawrence Plant gave Harborough a decent platform to work from but too often the ball was lost through silly mistakes.
Tom Lockwood, in his first game this season since his enforced sabbatical, ensured that the first half finished on a high with a try that saw him carry out wide where he was trying to take a bit of a breather. Like a strong dose of smelling salts the whiff of a try was enough to help him summon up the necessary energy to power through a host of would be tacklers to cross the line. “I’m back” he declared as he pounded his chest in both celebration and medical necessity to ensure that his heart received a much needed kick start.
The second half kicked off with Harborough now attacking down the deceptively steep slope. With a narrow lead the match was perfectly poised. The capacity crowd, including the official Blackcats supporter of the year Fergus Clarke and the lovely Shannon, had no idea of the try fest they were about to witness. There were too many tries to remember but two that stood out were scored by Mason Tye and Joel Nance. Mason finished a great move that saw some fantastic inter play and offloads between forwards and backs with skipper Gordan Guinness involved several times. The ball eventually came out wide to Mason on the right wing who then proceeded to use some hypnotic footwork to tie the impressive Long Buckby full back up in knots and dot down under the posts.
Joel Nance’s long distance try came following great work by Nick David who ran the ball back straight from receiving a kick off before opening up the defence like a packet of crisps. Joel still had lots to do but used his pace and eye for a gap to sprint down the slope and score.
Every player stepped up their game well in the second half in what were pretty challenging conditions. A dramatic drop in the error count, better tackling and some strong individual performances helped to increase confidence across the team. New recruit, Craig Sharpe, even took a couple against the head in the scrum – welcome to the club Sharpeh!
Thanks must go to Long Buckby for hosting the fixture and they probably feel a bit aggrieved at the final score line as it was much tighter for long periods than the final score suggests. Hats off especially to their young full back who had a great game and scored an impressive solo try.
For Harborough this was the perfect response to the previous weeks defeat and will hopefully be a sign of things to come. To support success in the first team there must be a competitive second team. The squad needs a strong core of players who are interchangeable between the first and second team. This creates competition for places and drives continual improvement. We currently have a squad which has an impressive depth of quality so players need to be patient, commit to training and make themselves available week in week out. With the threes getting a team out yet again and sealing another victory the future looks bright!