Sometimes in rugby you just have to hold your hands up and admit you got beat by a better team, and the unbeaten Harlow RFC were just that. With Harlow having scored over 1,000 points in seventeen league games (having had five additional ‘walkover’ wins due to opposition not wanting to play them!) and winning their two previous Papa Johns Cup ties with ease, it was always going to be a tough ask for Loughborough.

Amazingly Boro got the dream start they wished for gaining a penalty off the kick-off reception by Harlow, kicking for the corner and then patiently working for 1.30mins towards the posts for Hooker Jordan Goddard to dot down under a sea of bodies. A 7-0 lead and more importantly early momentum was exactly what the team needed – unfortunately a bit of kick-tennis led to a Boro knock-on and Harlow’s first attack, which they would go on to score from. This sucked the optimism out of Boro which showed with two more tries coming from the next two Harlow attacks. Importantly though the Boro scrum recovered from some early mishaps to be equal, or on-top on multiple occasions, which stemmed the flow for a few minutes, as Boro gained some much needed territory in the Harlow 22. Whether it was the bumper crowd, the largest seen in a very long time, or the pressure of the occasion but on three separate occasions Boro decided to tap-and-go from penalties 10m out from the posts. The third of these isolated runner carries got smashed and then a poorly executed offload attempt led to a counter attack by Harlow kicking/running the entire length of the pitch. An opportunity to close the gap to 14-21 turned into game-over with a 7-28 scoreline.

Boro kept going and had some great nuggets of phases here-and-there, whether that be at scrum-time, or returning-Fly-Half-turned-Referee Greg Biddle’s kick chases or No.8 Joel Poulter’s firm carry to score Boro’s second half consolation try.

Harlow’s hard running saw them eventually storm through with the final score of 12-61 not flattering them one-bit although also not embarrassing Boro. Of course there were mistakes but the majority of these are ones that will be learnt from the next time Boro reach these heights – and given Boro were the most successful Midlands team in these competition there is always a silver lining to be gained.

The season doesn’t end here though as the 1st XV travel to Old Newtonians on Saturday 29th April for their County Bowl Semi-Final (kick off 3pm) whilst the 2nd XV will be at Syston for their own County Bowl Final against Oadby Wyggs on the same day (kick off 2.15pm). If the 1st XV win, their County Bowl Final will be on Saturday 6th May at Vipers (against the winner or Birstall vs Sileby).

Photo credit - RJ Photography