Harborough 2nds see off a strong Hinckley side to guarentee a top four finish

Harborough 2nds faced Hinckley 3rds at Northampton Road on Saturday with both teams locked on the same points in 3rd place in the league. Hinckley are an experienced side full of big players who won by a margin in the reverse fixture but Harborough are on the up and started strongly attacking the Hinckley line and it took only 4 minutes for them to score when the ball came out to Joshua Jones who showed his strength and speed to power through and score near the posts and with Carl Strickson converting to give Harborough a 7-0 lead.
With Harborough having pace in abundance in the back line they were soon 14-0 in the lead as the ball went to Mason Tye who showed a clean pair of heels to the Hinckley defence and Carl Strickson slotted a good conversion. But Hinckley are a good side and played to their strengths notably around the fringes and with Harborough failing to defend the rucks well they twice broke through to bring the scores level at 14 all. Despite being a smaller side Harborough were more than holding their own in the tight scrums and the line out and mounted a number of promising attacks with the backs buzzing but all too often the final pass went astray or the ball was lost in contact. They did eventually manage to break the deadlock when Harry Sean Parker collected a pass and burst through to score, Carl Strickson again adding the extras for a 21-14 lead. Soon after the scrums became uncontested as an injury forced the Hinckley hooker from the field and they did not have a front row replacement. Despite their size this was more advantageous for Hinckley who were not having an easy time in the scrums. Harborough were however missing too many first up tackles not least by tackling far too high although there were notable exceptions in the backs with Thomas Mercer and Joel Nance standing out together with a number of forwards. It was poor tackling that led to another score for Hinckley although the conversion was missed and resulted in a half-time score of 21-19 to the home team.
Whatever was said at half-time worked wonders for Harborough or perhaps Hinckley were just off the boil but within 10 minutes of the whistle Harborough had scored 3 tries, the first a second try for Harry Sean Parker, converted by Carl Strickson, the second almost from the kick off came after Gareth Nicholson ignored the support and sold an outrageous dummy to the defence before racing over the try line from 30 metres out, Carl Stricksonadding the extras for a 35-19 lead. From the kick off it was Josh Jones making yet another powerful run upfield and although the ball was knocked on Harborough regained control and following excellent work from Kyle Paddy Merrigan, who had an all round excellent game, he managed to find Mason Tye who raced in to score his second try. Unfortunately the conversion hit upright, the only blemish on an otherwise excellent kicking display by Carl Strickson. Harborough were however 40-19 in the lead and perhaps took their foot of the gas a little although they had by now lost 3 players to injury. Hinckley now came to the fore with spoiling tactics not least on scrum half Thomas Mercer and started to make inroads but Harborough were resolute in defence with some crunching tackles none more so than by Harry Hollis whose final try saving tackle left everyone stunned not least the Hinckley player who took a while to recover! Unfortunately with time running out Hinckley managed at last to cross the Harborough line twice to bring the final score to 40-31 to Harborough and in doing so secured a vital try bonus point that leaves Harborough just 4 points above the. With Harborough still having a game to play they may well overtake Harborough and secure 3rd place but a top 4 finish for this young Harborough side is a huge improvement on last season. With the squad enjoying playing together and socialising post match it augers well for next season.