Harborough seconds prove too strong for South Leicester

Harborough started the year as they finished it with a resounding 64-16 victory at South Leicester. They took a strong squad and did not know what to expect with South Leicester now only running one side. The home side certainly had a big pack but they proved to be no match for the Harborough technical skills with Harborough dominating the scrums. South did however start strongly and proved that they had some strong runners but it was Harborough who struck first and although they squandered a few chances their scrum proved decisive and they won a 5 metre scrum against the head, pushing South back over the try line for Michael Woodford to touch down for a 5-0 lead. South struck back with a penalty, proving that they had a very good kicker. Harborough fought back and South were penalised close to their try line. Harborough took it quickly but it came to nothing although the resulting scrum was again decisive with Woodford touching down for his second score and Will Taylor added the extras; 3-12 to Harborough. Harborough were now looking very dangerous and following good runs from Josh Jones and Tom Simpson the ball went to Woody who dazzled the defence with his footwork but probably didn't fancy a 30 metre sprint so passed to Dan Rycroft who scored under the posts with Taylor adding the extras; 3-19. The home side struck back with a second penalty but it was not long before Harborough added another score. South threw long at the line out but the ball was taken by Tom Simpson who found Taylor in support and his pass to the strong running Charles Page Morris ensured a 4th try again converted by Taylor. A further score followed through the forwards (although Ian Beasley denied scoring it), Taylors conversion went in off the upright leaving Harborough 33-6 up at Half Time. Harborough brought on their substitutes for the second half but quickly conceded a number of penalties with one converted to reduce South's deficit to 9-33. Harborough however had too much class and a combination of forwards and backs saw them advance upfield and when the ball was passed to Harry Parker in the centre he made no mistake in touching down with Ed Bale converting; 9-40. Not to be outdone when a Harborough attack broke down, South kicked through and won the race to touch down and with the conversion brought the score to 16-40. There then followed some bizarre decisions as first Iain Barnett received a yellow card for sealing off as Harborough advanced upfield and then Ed Bale chasing his own kick collided with the South player as he jumped high to collect the ball. It was certainly clumsy but Bale was first shown a Red Card although this was later rescinded to a yellow although Harborough played the rest of the match with 14 men. Even stranger was that the penalty from the incident went to Harborough for dissent by South and Harborough kicked for touch and from the resulting line out Luke Copson touched down; 16-45. Harborough were however continuing to show that they had the game plan and the returning Barnett now at scrum half took the ball from Simpson's pick up and fed Jones, he fed Joel Nance who was held up just short but Simpson was on hand to pick up and crash over for a deserved try converted by Page-Morris 16-52. This became 16-59 when Jones was rewarded for his hard work with a try under the posts again converted by Page-Morris. South were however not taking defeat lying down and pummelled the Harborough line but the defence was quite outstanding and Harborough kept them out and when the final whistle went the intrepid reported had the final score at 16-59, however the referee insisted that it was 16-64 so no doubt our reported had yet again missed a try!