The game opened with sustained Luctonians attacks which tested Harrogate’s defence. A strong break from centre Francis Kelly took play into Harrogate’s half and Harrogate went offside at a Lucs driving maul. Louis Silver’s kick made it 0-3. Soon afterwards, Luctonians went offside in defence Doherty break was carried on by Keane Naylor who burst through the defence to score and Sam Fox’s conversion from wide made it 7-3.

The Luctonians restart failed to go 10 metres and resulted in a powerful Harrogate scrum which proved to be a feature of the match. This pattern continued resulting in a succession of Harrogate penalties but, eventually, Harrogate were adjudged to have scrummaged illegally and Luctonians set up a driving maul from the resulting attacking line-out. Connor Ward won great turnover ball in defence but Luctonians mounted another backs attack from the clearing kick and Kelly scored a converted try.

Harrogate’s scrum domination continued with young tight head, Will Dennis proving to be a real handful. The second row Brady brothers were a powerhouse in the loose and, on the stroke of half time, a huge driving maul ended with a Ward try to put Harrogate 12-10 ahead.

The Luctonians scrum continued to struggle after the restart but were allowed to get away with, even by today’s standards, quite extraordinary feeding. They set up a driving maul from good scrum ball and flanker Henry Monkley drove over for a converted try to make it 12-17. A Harrogate driving maul soon followed and Guy Coser’s converted try restored Harrogate’s lead.

Another outstanding try followed which seemed to have put Harrogate in an unassailable position. Oli Rosillo broke on the left wing from deep and, after an initial break, outstripped the defence for a 50 metres converted try. However, Luctonians fought back strongly and their efforts bore fruit after Sam Brady was yellow carded for a technical offence. A “creative” scrum feed gave them attacking ball and Tom Dodd’s converted try made it 26-24.

Harrogate: Doherty, Barnard, Naylor, Minikin, Rosillo, Fox, Matthews, Ward, Yorke, Dennis, J Brady, S Brady,
J Coser, G Coser, Harvey. Subs:- Young, Purkiss-McEndoo, N Smith, Giles, Morecombe

Luctonians: Doyle, Hodnett, Kelly, A Smith, Morris, Jones, Silver, Horner, Kirkby, White, Fowles, Morell, Dodd, Monkley, Cheshire. Subs:- Beaman, Powell, Price, Geraghty, Grimes

Referee: Llyr Ap Geraint Roberts

Match report by Bill Barrack