Harborough Colts overpower Whitchurch in National Cup

On a dry, sunny but blustery afternoon, the Harborough Colts produced an excellent display of controlled rugby to score five tries in a comprehensive victory over Whitchurch Colts in the National Plate. From arriving at the club, the lads were very focused on the match showing excellent concentration through their warm-up, the pre-match briefing and then generating passion in their wind up to the kick off.

Whitchurch were a strong team with some powerful forwards and strong running backs. Nevertheless, Harborough playing into a strong wind in the first half kept the ball in hand and produced an excellent blend of forward drives and swift passing moves across the back line. Harborough spent much of the first half pressuring Whitchurch back deep into their own half. After missing a few clear chances, Harborough got the first break through with a Joel scoring a fine try in the corner after a sweeping move involving backs and forwards.

Harborough weathered some heavy pressure deep in their own half with a controlled defensive display with all players tackling everything that moved. Harborough then broke out again with Parker scoring the first of his two tries with Joel converting. Whitchurch came back but more excellent defense limited them to a single penalty by half time giving Harborough a 12-3 lead.

Playing with the wind, Harborough increased their tempo in the second half scoring two tries in quick succession, the first from Parker and then a fine solo scrum-half try from Stubbs, both converted by Joel who added a further penalty to give Harborough a 29-3 lead. Coaches rang the changes to bring on all players off the Harborough bench to give them all some game time. The replacements fitted into the team without any loss of power or performance.

To their credit, Whitchurch came back strongly in the final 10 minutes but the Harborough lads showed fantastic skill and determination in defence to prevent the opposition crossing the whitewash. Even a series of short range penalties on the Harborough line were powerfully defended with the Harborough lads finally breaking out to clear the ball upfield to finish the match.

It was a superb all round performance with Harborough now going forward to meet Sheffield in the quarter finals on 30th March. We need a big turn out in training on Thursday to start our preparation for the match.