On a lovely April day, the Black Cats completed their league programme in a play-off first round against our good friends, Peterborough Rugby Club.
With several changes due to other commitments and injuries from last week’s brutal encounter in Northampton, this was never going to be an easy afternoon. And so, it proved.
We have gone through so many different weather conditions this year. The lads are now playing on very hard surfaces. There is no doubt softer pitches suit Harborough better.
Peterborough opened the scoring with a penalty. Harborough came back with a well-worked try finished off strongly by a returning Ollie Docherty. The impressive Ollie Stanbridge converted.
A nasty injury sustained by Adam Myrtenek disrupted things. Tom Claffy moved to 10. Full back Ollie Stanbridge, not for the first time this season, went in at 9.
7-3 to Harborough. Peterborough in the second half kept the ball in hand and with some impressive offloads started to gain the ascendancy. With the amount of ball that they had, it was not surprising that they ran in three tries with one being converted. A final score of 7-20 to Peterborough sees them off to play Broadstreet in the next round of these ridiculous RFU play-offs.
How players and clubs are expected to play four games and, in our case, five in under four weeks is crazy. Every week, players put their bodies on the line. Effectively playing five cup finals, after a long hard season is dangerous. For an organisation that is always talking about player welfare, this tournament is poorly thought out.
Whatever disappointment there is from today’s and last week’s matches, we cannot deny this has been a fantastic season. The highest finish by a Harborough team in its history. An amazing run of nineteen wins. 1033 points scored in a massively entertaining season. 24 matches, 1 draw, 20 wins, and 3 losses. That’s an average of 43 points per game. Thank you Gents, you are a credit to yourselves and this great club.
Now both the 1st XV and the 2nd XV have county cup finals to look forward to.
The County Cup takes place against Oadby Wyggs at Welford Road on Tuesday, 28th, 8pm kick-off. A supporter’s bus is running from Northampton Rd at 6pm. Links to buy coach and match tickets are on social media and the website. Book your coach as it is filling up fast.
The 2nd XV final takes place against Leicester Forest at Oadby Wyggs on Saturday, 2nd May. More details to follow.
See you on the 28th and let’s make some noise.

Tony Cochrane