I'm A Believer

Holidays and injuries combined to make Harborough travel to Nuneaton with the sixteen players available, with some of the squad forced to play out of position. But it was a lack of belief rather than a lack of ability that was the overriding factor in this defeat. Nuneaton were well organised and played as a cohesive team that Harborough were not able to counter.

There was a strong wind blowing in Harborough’s favour in the first half, but they could not turn this to their advantage. Giving away possession too easily and lacking the desire, Harborough allowed Nuneaton in for a soft first try. The ever energetic Will Hallam pulled one back, with a try given under the posts, although it was a fortunate score as the ball appeared to be lost before grounding. Still, a successful conversion put Harborough ahead.

Nuneaton came back with a quick try from a tap penalty to take the lead again. Some heroic defending on the line from Adam Stamp kept Nuneaton out for a while, but a soft penalty in the line out and a quick tap, and Nuneaton were over again to finish the half 15 – 7 ahead. Harborough were fortunate that the wind was playing havoc with the conversions.

With Harborough down to 14 players and short of a prop forward, one of the Nuneaton players volunteered to switch sides, and put in a good shift at the set piece. Another failure to deal with a quick tap penalty and Harborough found themselves 20 – 7 down.

Only then did Harborough start to look like they believed in their ability to score. With the running of James Melody and Harry Grimmett, sniping breaks of Mathew Stamp and sheer work rate from Oscar Kay, Harborough were able to cross the line and convert to bring them to 20 – 14 behind.

Any hope that Harborough could build a platform was snuffed out by another swift try from by Nuneaton. Will Nijjer then had a try disallowed before Hallam scored again to bring Harborough back into contention at 27 – 19. But two quick scores under the posts by Nuneaton, both converted, resulted in a final score of 41 – 19. The u15s need to rediscover their belief.