Blackheath's Billy Harding: 'I’d love to tell you what the secret sauce is for my try-scoring!'
Blackheath's club captain has scored 64 tries in 64 games for the National One side
©Nick King
"Jeez, I don’t know,” Blackheath’s Billy Harding says with a laugh when asked about the secret behind his extraordinary try-scoring season.
"I keep joking saying the main credit goes to getting married in August last year. That’s the main change, so give my wife Georgina the credit!"
There may be humour in Harding’s answer, but the numbers behind his remarkable National One campaign are no joke.
The hooker has scored 39 tries in 21 games and has crossed the whitewash in every match he has played in this season.
With five fixtures remaining, the league’s single-season record of 42 - scored by Phil Chesters for Ealing in 2010-11 - is within touching distance.
"The maul is functioning well, and my best mates from school always rib me saying: ‘Oh, you’re only scoring hanging off the back of mauls,' but I’ve scored a fair few off it as well!" Harding is quick to stress.
"I’d love to tell you what the secret sauce is, bottle it up and send it to other players in the league, but it’s pretty crazy. I’m 33 now and coming into what seems to be one of the best seasons of my life, definitely in terms of tries and performances.
"I think I’m just playing with no pressure, playing with a smile on my face. The whole club is and I just love being able to lead from the front."
While Harding’s tries have been a mandatory inclusion in club press officer Graham Cox’s match reports, the Blackheath captain credits head coach Tom Stradwick with elevating both his game and the team’s performances this term.
"We put so much work into the lineout through our coaching,” he says. “Strads, being a former second rower himself, and then Ed Scragg [who joined from Scarlets in the summer], who is an exceptional lineout operator, that’s been a huge step forward for us.
"I think our lineout was around 80 per cent last year and this year we’re 90 per cent plus, and that gives you an enormous platform to play off."
That platform proved crucial in Blackheath’s most recent outing, a statement 34-26 victory away at second-placed Plymouth Albion.
Unsurprisingly, Harding, who has scored 64 tries in 64 games for 'Club', dotted down twice.
Blackheath - who sit third in National One - grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck to lead 19-0 after 28 minutes, producing a performance that not only ended Plymouth’s 11-game winning streak but also shifted the balance at the top of the table.
"It’s one of those games you always want to play in," Harding says. “Top of the table clash, big crowd [2,550 were in attendance at Brickfields], and we got off to a hot start.
"They’re a very good team. There’s a reason they’re second in the league, but we were quietly confident going into that game. Yes, they were on an 11-game winning streak, but the last one they lost was to us [40-28 back in November].
"Their line-out didn't really function in that first half a couple of weeks ago, but luckily for us ours did and we took our chances so that was a big, big momentum swing for us."
The victory was celebrated in spirited fashion on the journey back to London.
"We had a pre-planned pirate social," Harding laughs. "Being in Plymouth, a navy town, we had a bit of fun on the train back. We even got a nice shout-out from the train conductor, which was well received by South Western Railway."
The progress Blackheath have made over the last three seasons has been kept on track by head coach Stradwick and his players.
Under the stewardship of James Shanahan, the club bounced back from relegation to National Two East at the first attempt and went on to finish eighth and sixth in the following campaigns.
But with Shanahan moving to Bury St Edmunds last summer - and several senior players stepping away from the squad - the reins were handed to former lock Stradwick.
"There was definitely a bit of apprehension," Harding admits. "We were losing nearly a thousand caps of experience with Strads moving to head coach and guys like Tom Baldwin, Leo Fielding and Markus Burcham no longer playing.
"But what’s come off the back of that is this huge wave of young players really keen to prove themselves, playing with that confidence of youth and a lack of fear."
A flurry of recruitment also occurred at The Utilita, and the new arrivals at Blackheath have blended with the leaders within the squad.
"You’ve got a real experienced backbone with guys like myself, Jordan Burns, Josh Smart and Ed Scragg," Harding says.
"It’s balanced really well. Strads made everything super streamlined, and it’s enabled us to kick on from last year and the foundations that were set."
For 33-year-old Harding, who has played National League Rugby for Stourbridge, Esher and Rosslyn Park - as well as representing Wasps, London Scottish, Ampthill and Coventry - this campaign has carried extra significance after being named club captain at the start of the season.
"To be honest, I was just really excited," he says. "It’s a special club for me because my Mum [Jenny] and Dad [Dennis] ran the Princess of Wales pub [where the club was founded in 1858] when I was about five years old.
"All the club execs remember me as this little shock of blonde hair running around the club and the pub about 25 years ago! I wasn’t scoring tries in the pub, though!”
Instead, that came in the front room of the Harding household, going up against his older brother Jamie.
"We used to play knee rugby in the lounge," he says. “Full contact. I’d be about five and he was 11, so he’d be knocking seven bells out of me until I got bigger than him when I was about 13 or 14. Then that stopped!"
From burrowing over on the carpet to powering over try-lines, playing for Blackheath could be described as a full-circle moment for Harding, who is relishing the remaining challenges in a gripping National One title race.
'Club' currently sit third, nine points behind leaders Rotherham Titans, who visit The Utilita this weekend in another pivotal fixture in the battle for top spot and the play-offs.
Harding insists the squad remain focused on the immediate challenge rather than the bigger picture.
“It’s a bit cliché, but our focus each year is just the next game,” he says. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, just keep performing as well as we can and see what happens.
“If we want to finish top, we probably have to win all of our games. But we’re not worrying about that. We’re playing Rotherham this week."
Blackheath pushed the league leaders close earlier in the campaign, falling 24-19 at Clifton Lane, but they did end Rotherham’s title hopes last April with a 31-24 home victory.
Since then, Harding and his teammates have lost just once at The Utilita, and the hooker expects nothing less than another fierce contest on Saturday.
“They’re a bloody good team,” he says. “We know we’ve got to meet them up front, if not better them. They’re one of the best scrummaging teams in the league, so the aim is to get parity there and then stick to our guns with the way we play."
A sixth straight victory this weekend would not only tighten the title race but also maintain Blackheath’s momentum heading into the final weeks of the season.
After Round 22, 'Club' face just one more top-half side - Sale FC (4th) in Round 24 - while table rivals Rotherham, Plymouth and Sale still have to play each other.
“It [a win] would be massive,” Harding says. “If we can beat Birmingham Moseley, Rams, Plymouth and then Rotherham in our most recent home games, that will give us enormous confidence going into the run-in.”
And as for Harding’s remarkable try-scoring run? For now, he seems happy simply to enjoy the ride.
“I can’t win with the fans or people around the squad,” he laughs. “Last year they were giving me stick saying I had ‘hat-trick avoidance’ because I kept getting two tries but never three.
"This year I’ve got five hat-tricks, and now they’re asking why I’m not scoring four!
“They keep pushing the standards. But I’m loving it, and hopefully there are a few more tries left before the season’s done so I can keep helping the team."
Make sure you follow National League Rugby on social media!
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | TikTok | Threads
.jpg "Christian Hooper going over for his milestone moments vs Fylde")
