Hinckley 3rds prove to strong for Harborough 2nds

Harborough 2nds travelled to Hinckley in high spirits with what they considered to be a reasonably strong side although without a regular scrum half leaving Henry Davis to slot in and put in a commendable performance. It soon became clear however that Hinckley had a much stronger pack than when they played at Harborough enabling them to dominate the scrums and line outs. Starved of good possession Harborough initially did well to have parity in field position and as always, their defence was excellent. What they could not counter however was the number of decisions that went against them either when they were threatening the Hinckley line or defending their own and by midway through the first half the score was 14-0 to the home side. Harborough fought back and when Hinckley knocked on 35 metres out, Skipper Joel Nance put an excellent grubber kick through to the corner flag only to be told that there was no advantage and they had to resort to a scrum near the 10 metre line! As Harborough were unable to secure any clean ball this was clearly not an advantage. Worse was to follow when a kick ahead by Hinckley into the visitors 22 was stopped by Charles Page-Morris’ shin only for Hinckley to be awarded a scrum from which they drove forward for their 3rd score; 21-0. Shortly after the home team again attacked the Harborough line with their player going to ground but despite Harborough lifting both man and ball off the ground there was no penalty for holding on and instead Hinckley were awarded the penalty. They took a quick tap and went in for their 4th score to bring the half-time score to 28-0. With the whole Harborough team getting angry at the decisions, the skipper had a long chat with the referee and whether or not that had the desired effect Harborough came back strong in the second half and dominated the early exchanges and it was somewhat against the run of play that Hinckley managed to pick up loose ball and run through to bring the score to 35-0. Harborough, however refused to go down without a fight and following a break by Josh Jones the ball finally reached Henry Davis who raced in to touch down under the posts and when he added the conversion the deficit was reduced to 35-7. As the half wore on, Harborough were controlling their own scrums and were looking the more dangerous side with Harborough’s Man of the Match, Ian Beasley making huge yards every time he got the ball. (Just a shame he was late back to the club and his prize had to be drunk by Josh Jones!) They could however only manage one further score by Harvey Clarke, adding to his impressive try count as he finished off a fine move. 35-12. Sadly the loss was not the worst news for Harborough as with the last play of the game Marcus John-Charles who has shown that he can be a talisman for the team, went down injured after putting in a big tackle and had to be taken to hospital by ambulance. He is now recovering but his fractured rib will keep him out for quite some time.