Sat 18 Apr 2026
Peterborough RUFC made the trip to Market Harborough on Saturday in the first knock out round of the promotion play offs. Despite being huge under dogs against the top seeds Borough came away with a really tough 20-7 victory.
Borough kicked off with the wind at their backs and were immediately under pressure from the hard running Harborough forwards. Time and time again Borough were forced into some desperate defence but the pressure took its toll with flanker Dave Harding-Prior being sinned binned for repeated infringements which was then followed up by a well deserved Harborough converted try. Borough then went on the offensive and began to have some success moving the ball wide but all to often the ball was being lost in contact. Finally after some dominant scrums of their own Borough were able to convert a scrum penalty into points when Harry Anderson kicked a well taken 3 points. The rest of the half was an arm wrestle with neither side adding more points. The 7-3 half time score meant Borough were well in the contest but would need to find something extra to take an unlikely win.
With some minor adjustments Borough would go on to produce one of their best half's of rugby of the season. With the introduction of Liam Shields at flyhalf and a bit more depth on attack Borough were able to finally unlock the stubborn home sides defence. Centre Dylan Evans made a decisive break from half way and passed to unmarked fullback Mooki Tshempo to score to give Borough a 8-7 lead. With their confidence high the Fengate outfit kept pushing for more and were rewarded when second row Will Manning made a break from the front of a lineout and ran through three would be defenders to score out wide. As belief began to rise in the visitors their win was confirmed when Ross Chamberlain finished off a great team try with the ball going through several sets off hands. Shields converted for a most unlikely 20-7 win.
Director of Rugby Shane Manning's comments. " I'm really pleased for the lads but more so for the coaches as they know how good the lads can be and their hardwork has paid off. Harry Anderson was our Man of the Match for his defence, he tackles so well and really shows the other lads how its done. Our scrum functioned well which is not an easy thing to do against Harborough. But all the win has done is given us another week in the play offs, you don't get anything for winning this game so we need to turn our attention to Broadstreet who won the other play off game. They are desperate to be promoted and have pulled in some players from a lot higher level to make that happen for them. So we will be huge under dogs again but we weren't supposed to beat Harborough either so who knows what might happen"
