U9's v ON's

After heavy rain first thing the skies cleared on Sunday morning and the under 9 Mischiefs and Rogues squads played a home fixture against the ONs, possibly one of MHRUFC's closest rivals.
Although the rain had stopped there were odd showers making handling tricky. In light of these conditions the rugby played was of a really good standard. Both squads improve weekly, and there was evidence that the last 2 weeks training have been especially beneficial with the vast majority of the players tackling well and getting defensive lines in position.

From the Mischiefs squad of Ethan Beadnall, Ethan Hack, Noah Green, Zac Conneely, Raf Hodgson, William Milne, Thomas Bailey, Thomas Kimbell and Barney Walsh there was a marked improvement from their previous showing at Olney. At Olney the boys had won twice and lost twice, which although better results than previous at South Leicester, they were still struggling with being defensively organised and using the width of the pitch to attack and score tries. Against ONs the first game was won 4-3, with Barney Walsh crossing twice. Given space to run in he can certainly get himself across the whitewash, and scored 6 tries in total, including a great hat trick in the second game, which Mischiefs won 3-2. Game three was against the weaker of the three ON squads, and was won 6-1. Noah Green using his "power" to cross the line twice, with a number of the opposition hanging onto him ! Also tries for Ethan Beadnall, who is scoring regularly for the squad, and Ethan Hack, who was also very prominent in defence all morning. Game four was against a mixed ONS team and resulted in a closely fought loss by 4-3. This was the Mischiefs most competitive game of the day and although they scored good well worked tries, by Walsh, Kimbell and Hodgson, an unfortunate turnover led to ONs scoring with the final. There was good close support play by Thomas Bailey and some mazy running by Zac Conneely and as usual strong offensive tackling by William Milne, plus also good support play. However overall the main focus was much improved and organised defence in which all played their part.

Reportedly the rogues had a great morning, winning all four of their matches. They are clearly playing some great attacking rugby and also showing a strong defence, having gelled as a squad very well. So overall the match result was Harborough 7 and ONs 1. A very impressive result.