Wirral vs Harrogate

The conditions were ideally suited for running rugby and Wirral have a talented set of backs who took full advantage of this. However, bad finishing denied Harrogate several scoring opportunities and atypical defensive lapses made the scoreline look worse than it should.

Harrogate opened with forwards and backs linking well in attack but lost possession and Wirral No8, Keith Mahon ran strongly through some distinctly average Harrogate tackling. A knock on resulted in a Harrogate scrum from which they drove Wirral backwards but Mr Riley’s interpretation of the scrum laws gave Wirral a penalty, kicked by Jimmy Annetts who went on to have a 100% kicking success rate throughout the match.

Annetts soon showed that he wasn’t just a kicker. A Wirral backs attack ended with him scything through some porous Harrogate defence for a good individual try. Harrogate scrum dominance continued but so did the refereeing law interpretations which repeatedly denied them attacking opportunities. The next score was a Wirral penalty following a Harrogate offside offence.

Harrogate then mounted pressure on the Wirral line with repeated driving mauls which led to the Wirral defence going repeatedly offside and a penalty try was eventually awarded. Chris Crowley, Wirral’s scrum half then charged down an attempted Harrogate clearance, the ball stuck in his grasp and he sprinted away for a great individual try. More Wirral attacks followed and Ryan Stead drove over for yet another home try.

In the dying minutes of the half, Harrogate forward drives led to Wirral conceding repeated penalties and, eventually, Mahon was yellow carded. Brady, Harvey and Jonny Coser won a stream of line-out possession but Tim Heaton’s drive for the line was held up with the winger outside him begging for a scoring pass. A further driving scrum followed but Wirral were allowed to hack the ball clear to a Harrogate player in open space. His knock on ended the half.

The second half started with Harrogate forwards and backs linking well in waves of attacks. Brady powered over for a converted try and the Harrogate attacks continued. More pressure followed and although a late tackle on Harry Barnard was properly yellow carded, the referee appeared to have dismissed the wrong man. More Harrogate attacks followed but more scoring opportunities were butchered. A midfield forwards dust up then resulted in a yellow card for Jonny Coser though this again seemed to be a possible mistaken identity decision. However, it unquestionably led to another Wirral penalty goal.

More Wirral attacks and more Harrogate defensive lapses followed with tries from Annettss, Mark Williams and replacement forward, James Reeve. There was a Harrogate revival in the final 10 minutes but they’d left themselves far too much to do in the remaining time. David Doherty had come off the bench and added some real bite to the attack so it was fitting that his skill split the defence for a fine try. Still more Harrogate forwards pressure and, in the last move of the match, Brady drove over for his second try which gave Harrogate the meagre consolation of a bonus point.

Wirral: Annetts, Gidman, Williams, Broadbent, Loon, C Harvey, Crowley, Yarker, Gratton, Higginson, Lewis, Stead, Parry, Pearl, Mahon. Subs:- Thompson, Reeve, Prendergast.

Harrogate: Rosillo, Barnard, Edwards, Minikin, Lawson, White, Matthews, Purkiss-McEndoo, Maycock, Ward,
T Harvey, Brady, J Coser, G Coser, Heaton. Subs:- Yorke, Peace, Doherty

Referee: Matt Riley (Northern Division)

Match report by Bill Barrack