Digby digs deep but Harborough slip to defeat

With Harborough 1st team having a walkover in the cup it was the turn of the second team to take centre stage at Lutterworth. For a number of players this was their first outing for a few weeks and this showed in the early exchanges as they struggled to play as a team. Lutterworth were quickly into their game and crossed for their first try after 8 minutes when a kick to the corner was gathered all too easily for the touch down. The conversion was missed but the home side stretched their lead to 8-0 with a penalty on 14 minutes. Harborough were already playing catch up rugby as they struggled to gain possession and when they did it was all too often turned over. From one of these turnovers Lutterworth stretched the ball wide and crossed for a second try to take them 13-0 up but Harborough pulled 3 points back before half time through a Nick Airey penalty. The fact that they had conceded so few points was largely due to some excellent defence and fine individual performances none less so than by Fergus Clarke who showed his versatility by filling the scrum half slot. The half-time team talk coupled with some changes had the desired effect and Harborough started the second half strongly. Within 3 minutes they crossed for their first try as the returning Jack Smith stormed in from 30 metres for a fine individual touch down. The conversion was missed but on 50 minutes a huge hit by Stefan Ziemelis resulted in a turnover by Harborough and as the ball was kicked upfield Clarke was on hand to outpace the defence and touch down for the try that with the Airey conversion saw Harborough take a 15-13 lead. Lutterworth were looking rattled and bought on some replacements and this had the desired effect as they added a 3rd try that with the conversion put them back in front 20-15. A 4th try stretched this to 25 -15 but Harborough had now got their game plan together with the line out and scrum functioning well and they were making inroads with strong running not least by the returning Jack Digby who was putting in a man-of-the-match performance both in the tight and the loose. This inevitably put pressure on Lutterworth and they started to concede penalties and territory. From one of these the penalty was taken quickly by Lawrence Plant who capped an excellent performance by touching down to bring Harborough within a score of victory. But it was not to be as Lutterworth made a final break to touch down and bring the final score to 30-20. There were positives for Harborough, including a promising debut for Ollie Marriot at 15, but all players need to turn up for training regularly if they are to improve further.