Harborough took a tour bus south on a day trip to London to meet the U18s from the Championship’s leading team. They met a side used to winning well and unbeaten this season, on the artificial pitch at their impressive grounds.
They were a large team too, noticeably bigger than the visitors.
Undeterred though, Harborough started strongly and exerted pressure on the Ealing defence. They got within the opposition 10m on several occasions but couldn’t breakthrough.
When another attack was repelled and Ealing gained possession from their attempted clearing kick Harry Slaughter was able to charge down and then win the race to the ball to score. George Williams converted and finally Harborough took a 0:7 lead.
The rest of the half was tightly contested but it was Ealing who got the next points, their attacker reaching over his head to get the score when tackled just short. The conversion levelled the game 7:7.
The tight contest continued. Harborough won a penalty just in the opposition half and Williams kicked successfully. The half finished 7:10
Second half replacements came on and the game restarted much like the first half.
Harborough won a scrum close to the opposition line, a strong scrum secured the ball which was passed to Will Leebrook who crashed over to score. 7:17
Harborough continued to dominate and Ealing infringed close to their line. A quick tap and go penalty proved too quick for the defence and Leebrook scored his second, again converted by Williams.7:24
Ealing then came back into the game and started to pressure the Harborough line. A series of infringements saw the visitors receive a team yellow, but they continued to repel the attacks.
However Ealing finally managed to break through to score, 12:24
The rest of the game was a tight contest but in the final play Ealing scored a consolation try. Final score 17:24

This was a superb team performance in a game of good quality rugby from both teams.