Hull held a narrow 20-24 half time lead and edged further ahead with a penalty before Harrogate gifted them the softest of tries from a bad knock-on on the goal line.

The opening score came from an electric 40 metre break by Harrogate’s Callum Irvine. He showed pace and balance to dance through the visiting defence for a brilliant individual try.

His conversion gave Harrogate a 5 minute 7-0 lead.

Hull responded immediately with a spirited attack and James Cameron kicked a penalty goal after Harrogate went offside. More visiting pressure followed when Harrogate again conceded a penalty and Rob Devonshire tucked in behind a driving maul to score a trademark Hull forward’s try.

Harrogate then produced a series of attacking moves with Sam Bottomley a constant threat and Tim Heaton excelling in attack and defence.

A well constructed forward drive was taken on by Jimmy Browne who off loaded brilliantly to Jack Bergmanas. Bergy then split Hull’s defence with a skilfully angled run to score.

An even period of play followed till Harrogate conceded another penalty to give Hull an attacking scrum and Oliver Cook burst trough for a crucial try.

Hull were then penalised for coming in from the side and Harrogate attacked from the subsequent line-out.

Ed Smithies made the extra man and gave a scoring pass to Noel Minikin.

As half time approached, Hull attacked again on the left and Jim Wigglesworth squirmed over to give the visitors a narrow half time lead.

Harrogate disastrous third quarter followed and they were playing catch-up rugby from then.

They continued to attack at every opportunity but a string of handling errors kept denying them scores. Eventually, Smithies again came into the line to make an overlap and score.

Harrogate continued to press for the rest of the match but also continued to deny themselves scoring opportunities with basic mistakes.

Harrogate: Smithies, Heylings, Bottomley, Quarendon, Minikin, Irvine, Wickham, Bergmanas (Innes 40), Maycock (Yorke 63), Browne, Harvey, S Brady (J Brady 61), Heaton, Beaumont (Wilson 72), Peacey

Hull: Wigglesworth, Piercy, Slingsby, White, Donkin (Radford 65), Cameron, White, Longbone (Price 44), Lamping, Fullman (Dutton 60), Lewis (C Murphy 60), P Murphy, Devonshire (Campbell 69), Dorrington, Cook

Referee: Kevin White (SRFU)

MOM: Jim Wigglesworth (Hull)

Match Report by Bill Barrack

Match Photos by Richard Bown and Simon Heylings