Billy Harding scored a try today. Of course he did. That is what the Blackheath captain does. In fact, he scored three. Harding has more tries than anyone this season, for any club in any division. Blackheath’s 43-19 win away to Leeds was the 25th successive match in which he has crossed the whitewash – a flawless record – and he has 46 tries in all. The extraordinary thing is that Harding is a hooker.
Try No 43, scored at home the previous week, set a new record for National League One. It came in familiar fashion. A lineout deep in Sale’s 22, a safe catch and drive, with Harding running round the back to take possession of the ball and then, as the maul wheeled, he peeled, did a pirouette to shrug off a tackler and dived over the line.
That broke the record for rugby’s third tier in England, held since 2012 by Phil Chesters, a wing with Ealing Trailfinders. The previous year Chesters had an incredible 70 tries in National Two, but apart from him Harding now has more than anyone else has ever scored in the top four tiers.
His haul far outstrips the 39 that Chris Ashton, the England wing, got for Northampton in 2007-08.
Even more remarkable than the quantity is that he has scored in every match this season. Stuart Farmer, the rugby statistician, has found no precedent at any level.
The second longest scoring streak in the national leagues is 19, by James Botterill for Esher over two seasons.
Harding’s consistency merits comparison with arguably football’s greatest player, Lionel Messi, who scored in 21 consecutive matches for Barcelona in 2012-13.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Harding said. “I just started scoring and then, well, didn’t stop. I thought, ‘Let’s see how long I can keep riding this wave’.” The Blackheath record of 25 tries in a season was passed before Christmas. He has now claimed six hat-tricks.
His pursuit of the league record has added an extra dimension to a thrilling finish to the season. The RFU gets a lot of criticism, much of it deserved, but the addition of play-offs this year has been welcome. With one match to go, at home to Clifton next Saturday, Blackheath are in second place, three points clear of Plymouth Albion and four behind leaders Rotherham. Each club hope to get back to a level they once held. Plymouth, marking their 150th anniversary, were relegated from the second tier in 2014. Their average home crowd of 2,200 is better than most clubs get in the Championship. Rotherham were twice in the Premiership, most recently in 2004. Blackheath were last in the second tier in 1998-99.
In the final three rounds, the top three all had to play Sale (the original club, not the professional Sharks), who are fourth and could also have made the play-offs. Blackheath’s 40-19 win last week assured them of a top-three place but Sale could yet decide the finishing order. They came from 26-15 down to beat Plymouth 29-26 today and now go to Rotherham with Blackheath’s best wishes.
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The league champions will go up automatically, with second playing third to enter another play-off against the losers of a relegation battle in the Championship, either Richmond or London Scottish. If that ends up being Richmond v Blackheath it would continue a south-west London rivalry that began in 1864.
That would have double relevance for Harding. His parents used to run the Princess of Wales pub in Blackheath, where the world’s oldest open rugby club was founded in 1858, and he played for their minis. The club president recalls him charging around with a shock of blond hair like a tiny Henry Pollock. Then they moved to run the Orange Tree in Richmond.
He has been on quite a journey since. Harding has also played for Scottish, Esher, London Wasps, Ampthill, Coventry and Rosslyn Park, and in New Zealand and France. When he scored his record try, a friend waved a placard that said: “Finally, more tries than clubs.” Having returned to Blackheath three years ago and then become captain this year, he says his travels are over. “Definitely.”
Oddly, his favourite moment is not a try but an assist. Away to Tonbridge Juddians in January, he took the ball in his own half, shaped to kick it and sold the defender a dummy. “I looked up, saw he’d bought it and was laughing,” he said. “I had a 30-metre scamper then gave the ball to someone with better pace [Raff Hollister, the wing].” Harding’s own try in that game was from 20 metres.
Another highlight was from a much closer range. “At home against Rotherham, I scored at one end in front of my wife, dad and father-in-law and then at the other in front of my mum and stepdad,” he said. “They were from one metre out combined but it was special to look up and see them cheering.”
Among other cheerleaders recently were a World Cup winner (John Gallagher, full-back for New Zealand in 1987, who went to school in Blackheath) and the former England flanker Mickey Skinner, another club alumnus.
There is just one problem with making the play-offs: Harding and his wife, Georgina, are supposed to be on a delayed honeymoon, having married just before the season started.
“We sensibly thought the end of May would be good,” he said. “We didn’t have the dates for the play-offs.” So far, he has not changed the flights to Antigua, hoping that Sale, after today’s result, may yet do him and Blackheath another favour.
Photograph by Andy Hall for The Observer