Snakebite and Black Cats

A man of the match performance from the Harborough skipper, scrum half and PA to Timmy Waterfield secured a second bonus point victory of the season for the Black Cats. The 29-3 win included 5 tries, 4 coming in the second half following a difficult first 40 minutes where the visitors threw everything they had in to some resilient defence.
Vipers came out intent on making amends for their loss the previous week to Belgrave and took an early lead with a penalty from fly half Robbie Carr. Harborough laboured to get in to any kind of rhythm and numerous handling errors prevented them from sustaining any kind of pressure on the opposition defence. Several times in the first half the hard yards had been made and the defence stretched ready for the ball to go wide to expose the mis-matches or overlaps. Unfortunately handling errors or wrong decisions were made extinguishing the opportunity to put points on the board. It therefore remains 3-0 until just before half time.
Finally, with the last play of the half the Harborough pack opted for a scrum when awarded a penalty close to the Viper’s try line, which absolutely delighted the Harborough coach. The Harborough scrum was dominating and provided the platform for Timmy Waterfield’s second best mate to touch down after great work from the forwards. Bum taps all round just before the half time whistle.
Michael Woody Woodford came on at half time to provide some extra ball carrying resource in the Harborough pack which was having to work extremely hard to make ground. Lee ‘TS’ Butler made way for the stalwart after putting in a great shift in the first 40 minutes.
The second half came alive for the Black Cats through three great solo efforts and a well worked team try. An interception by centre Laurence Joel in the Harborough 22 gave him the opportunity to show his pace and race the length of the pitch for a lung bursting try. A fantastic piece of individual brilliance from Timmy’s PA following another dominant scrum extended the lead. Beating his opposite number, the winger and the full back the Budgy Smuggler wearing number 9 scored his second of the game. He added to his tally a little later on after making a great break but just fell short of the line. Help was at hand as he struggled back to his feet (should probably do more leg days down the gym) in the form of number 8 Chris Bale who threw him over the line to score his third try of the day.
Harvey Slade scored the other Harborough try which was the result of some great team play which created holes in the defence. This time, unlike in the first half, the ball was used perfectly and lovely work in the back line gave the Harborough 10 the space to use his speed to pick a hole in the Vipers defence.
Laurence Joel converted 2 of the 5 tries making the final score 29-3.
The players deserve much credit for a gritty performance that, like last week, shows that there is still work to be done to improve in certain areas. To win by 5 tries to 0 when not playing to their full potential is not a bad place to be. The defence was resolute and there were some great unseen performances. The front 5 dominated at the set piece and deserve credit for setting a platform for the rest of the team to play from. Securing a second consecutive bonus point win of the season, whilst adapting to a new style of play with a number of new personnel is not easy.
Speaking after the game Harborough’s skipper commented;
“It’s a huge honour to captain this club. To emulate Timmy Waterfield’s performance last week by scoring 3 tries is probably the greatest moment of my playing career. I’d like to dedicate my outstanding hat-trick to my man Timmy and wish him a speedy recovery from his injury”.
No first team game next week. The next League action for the ones is away at Oakham in 2 weeks time for the first Battle of the Tweed of the season.