After an excellent performance the previous week Harborough travelled to play Silhillians in the RFU cup with renewed confidence. Sadly it was not to be as poor decision making and a lack of commitment from a number of players resulted in a 27-5 defeat. They were missing a couple of regulars but this was no excuse for failing to put into practice what they do week in week out on the training pitch. There were some fine individual performances not least by Harborough’s man of the match, Timmy Waterfield, who stepped in to cover the vacant scrum half position and demonstrated the attitude that a number of others lacked. From the start Harborough put themselves under pressure with poor field kicks and a lack of aggression at the breakdown. This gave Silhillians the upper hand and after a series of drives they went over in the corner to take a 5-0 lead after 15 minutes. Only good defence prevented further scores but on 25 minutes Silhillians touched down again to double their total. Harborough did at last raise their game with Josh Haynes and Caolaan Fitzpatrick making probing runs but the try came through the forwards as Stefan Zeimelis touched down wide out on 38 minutes. The second half started well for Harborough with Waterfield leading the way as they came within a metre of the try line but just as a score looked inevitable a knock on gave possession to the home team who were able to clear their lines. Further poor kicking from Harborough saw them pushed back into their own 22 and from a scrum Silhillians touched down once again wide out on 50 minutes. They then added another try on 70 minutes to put them well in control at 20-5 and despite some strong running play by Ethan Godefroy Harborough could not add to their points tally. Worse was to come when Fergus Clarke was given a straight Red Card for foul play on 75 minutes and it was the home side who finished on a high as they ran in their 5 try that with the conversion gave them victory by 27-5. They return to League action at Vipers on 22 October and need to start winning games