The game opened with wave after wave of Harrogate attacks but “final pass handling errors” thwarted them. Morley made their first serious incursion into the Harrogate half after 20 minutes and promptly scored. Veteran stand-off, Scott Benton, made a silky break then delivered a perfectly weighted pass to Sam Mullarkey. The flanker burst through a poor tackle to score and Simon Bradshaw’s conversion gave Morley a seven point lead.

Mike Aspinall replaced the injured Rob Almond and injected more control into the Harrogate game. He and Sam Bottomley combined well to create a little space for winger, Jamie Broadley, who showed pace and determination to score. Everybody on the ground, apart from one of the Touch Judges, thought the try had been converted but, since there was a disagreement, it was disallowed.

On the stroke of half time, a Harrogate forward was adjudged to have been in front of the kicker when chasing a long clearance kick and Bradshaw’s penalty made it 10-5 at the break.

Harrogate continued to attack at every opportunity but panic seemed to have set in and there was some real “headless chicken” running about. They eventually went offside and Bradshaw duly extended Morley’s lead.

A Harrogate forward drive was halted illegally by “hands on the floor” just short of the goal line. Harrogate ran the penalty quickly and Aspinall, who had moved to his accustomed stand-off position, made a scything break and burst through some despairing tackles to score. A Morley offside offence then gave Harrogate a penalty which Aspinall kicked despite the best efforts of the “gentlemanly” Morley crowd to put him off.

A further Bradshaw penalty goal sealed it for Morley following an adjudged illegal tackle on their No8

Morley: Evans, Gyast, Hall, Ash, Bradshaw, Benton, S Dadswell, Gabriel, Darbyshire, Benn, Stannard, Chamberlain, Mullarkey, P Dadswell, Field

Harrogate: Smithies, Almond (Aspinall 30), Dench, Bottomley, Broadley, Davies, Bugge, Browne, Weaving (Maycock 60), Tampin (Fraser 50), Brady, Lodge (Spencer 70), Wilson, Wood, Heaton

Referee: John Healy (RFU)

Match Report by Bill Barrack
Photos by David Aspinall