The League match doubled up as a Yorkshire Cup Quarter Final and Harrogate deservedly squeezed through to a Semi Final at Doncaster Phoenix on the 12th May.

Harrogate began to exert pressure after early even exchanges with Jonny Coser well to the fore supported by his fellow “back rowers” Tom Harvey and Willem Enslin. Quick ball put stand-off, Callum Irvine into space and his smartly taken drop goal opened the scoring. The pressure continued and a home offside offence resulted in a Harrogate attacking line-out. A powerful driving maul took the ball over Otley’s line for a Harvey try converted by Lewis Minikin.

This gave Harrogate a 0-10 lead midway through the half but, if they thought they were cruising to a straightforward win, Otley had other ideas. A quickly taken Stephen Depledge penalty opened the smallest of gaps for centre, Mike Coady. His power and pace took him through the Harrogate midfield for an excellent 35 metres try, converted by Depledge. More Otley attacks followed and a blind side break took them over the goal line only to knock on while trying to touch down. Sam Bottomley counter attacked from defence for Harrogate but his support was penalised for holding and Depledge’s penalty made it 10-10. Harrogate continued to attack but moves broke down from too many handling errors. They then went offside after a scrum to be punished by another Depledge penalty which gave Otley a 13-10 half time lead.

From the restart, Harrogate mounted high octane attacks but repeated handling errors ended the moves. However, the pressure had to tell and, after two attacking scrums, quick ball to Bottomley led to him powering through to score a converted try under the post. This restored Harrogate’s lead and the best move of the match soon made it 13-22. Full back, Minikin took a high ball in defence and glided through Otley’s defence. Danny Matthews carried the move on and passed to replacement hooker Tom Larder whose powerful run took him close to the line. Having initiated the move, Minikin then backed up to score in the corner.

However, the match was far from over. Harrogate went offside after a scrum and another quickly taken Depledge penalty created a gap for the supporting Will Rigg to score a converted try and make it 20-22. This turned out to be the final score and, though Otley continued to try to attack, Harrogate were now well in control and kept play in Otley’s half for the rest of the match.

Otley: Coupland, Wood, Henry, Coady, White, Chivers, Depledge, Burkinshaw, Steele, Blades, Scott-Paul, Dunn, O’Donnell, Heaton, F Watson. Subs:- Rigg, H Watson, Cook, Sharples, Cruise

Harrogate:L Minikin, Bottomley, Nesbitt, Edwards, Barnard, Irvine, Matthews, Ward, Yorke, Reaveley, J Brady,
S Brady, Harvey, J Coser, Enslin. Subs:- Larder, Peace, Nwanazia, Lansdall, Wickham.

Referee: Mick Harris (RFU)

Match report by Bill Barrack