An uneven contest sees seconds lose heavily

The final Merit table match of the season for Harborough 2nds had been rearranged to 29 April at the request of Lutterworth and the result probably tells us why. Harborough fielded their usual second team with a few Vets and Colts added although the majority were forwards. Lutterworth on the other hand came with what was probably their strongest team of the season with a number of 1st team players “returning from injury”. It did not take long to realise that this was a total mismatch as although Harborough held their own in certain phases of the game Lutterworth’s stand out players were able to control the game and run in tries at will. Harborough’s cause was not helped by the loss of Scrum Half, Simon Dowling after a few minutes and captain Ryan Gibson late in the first half, both to head injuries. A half-time score line of 57-0 to the visitors reflected their dominance but not the endeavour of the whole Harborough team. Despite this Harborough’s heads did not drop even if it was hard to take and early in the second half they fought back to score a try from a 5 metre scrum that was driven over the line. The referee insists that the touch-down was made by replacement scrum half Jake Thornton to secure his first try for the club. On the other hand Alex Houghton insisted that it was his hand that touched the ball down first. The consensus in the bar was that it should either be awarded to Alex Thornton or Jake Houghton but as we all know the referee’s word is sancrosant! The conversion was also a first with Nick David aka Nick Boxall stepping up to drop kick the conversion. More was to follow as he then slotted a penalty from 35 metres to add to Harborough’s tally and demonstrate that they did manage to get a fair share of territory. Tries apart there were some stand out performances not least the tackling of Steven Bale at 15, Jack Roginski showing promise for the future in the pack and a special mention for Jack Digby who answered the call for a bit of youthful first team experience when no others did. But all in all the 20 players on the field did Harborough proud and when offered the opportunity to end the game early they declined and agreed to play the full 80 minutes. By this time they had lost both Charlie Beard and Cameron Boa to injury although they appeared to recover rather quickly after an hour in the bar! Finally suffice to say Lutterworth continued to run in tries at will to bring the final score to 105-10 but whether they can be truly satisfied with putting one over on their local rivals in such a mismatch is open to question.