Harrogate vs Wharfedale

In the event, Wharfedale won as expected albeit by a somewhat flattering margin.

The game started with well organised Harrogate forward drives but an early offside offence resulted in 3 Wharfedale penalty points kicked by Luke Gray.

Harrogate more than matched their senior opponents in the tight and won a stream of line-out possession from the dominant James Spencer. Wharfedale then strayed offside to give Harrogate centre, Andy Ellis the opportunity to equalise but he unfortunately “missed a sitter”. This turned out to be Harrogate’s last goal attempt of the match.

Somewhat against the run of play, Wharfedale set up a driving maul at the end of the first half and flanker Latu Maka’afi’s try gave them a 0-8 interval lead.

The same pattern of play continued in the second half and strong Harrogate drives seemed certain to produce a score. However, Wharfedale defended well and Harrogate didn’t help their cause with 2 ill judged line-out calls on the visitors’ 5 metre line.

The inevitable wholesale substitutions took place and Wharfedale’s changes did result in more threatening attacks from their backs. Maka’afi made the extra man at the end of a slick passing move and scored the converted try to put Wharfedale into the next round.

Harrogate: Smithies (Bugge 75), McGee, Broadley (Hardy 60), Ellis, Parsons, R Davies, Wickham (Hargreaves 75), McMillan (Metcalf 55), Yorke, S Davies (Leach 65), Spencer, Burns (Brady 65), Maslaveckas (Wilson 37), Spence, Lewis

Wharfedale: Dixon, Horsfall, Ticknell, Hodgson, Hall, Gray, Matthews, Horner, Chivers, Dickinson, Renton, Brown, Maka’afi, Solomi, Baldwin.

Referee: Iwan Williams (Yorkshire)