Stand-off, Mike Aspinall opened the scoring after Aarin Yorke supported a Sam Bottomley break. His pace outstripped the Broadstreet defence for a fine try which he converted himself.

An even period of play followed with Broadstreet’s forward drives well defended by Harrogate. The home backs looked the more threatening but Broadstreet set up the next try by winning a Harrogate line-out. Prop Paul Hurst drove over the line to score. The visiting backs then showed their quality when slick handling gave the ball to their star winger, Greg Summers. His fast elusive running took him over the line to score and put Broadstreet into the lead.

Harrogate then secured good turnover ball and Aspinall made the initial break before passing to centre, Kyle Dench. He powered through the midfield defence, cleverly chipped and gathered his kick to score under the posts. Broadstreet drew closer when Harrogate went offside and then failed to retreat the required 10 metres. Stand-off, Dan Richards took full advantage of this second opportunity to kick the penalty and make the half-time score 14-13.

From the restart, Bottomley pounced on a bad Broadstreet knock-on to kick through with great control to score. Strong Harrogate forward drives followed from props Simon Davies & Jimmy Browne, well supported by debutant 2nd Row, Jake Brady. Aspinall broke and cleverly cross-kicked to the left where winger, Chris Harris showed his pace to score.
A bout of aerial ping pong followed before Aspinall and Dench set up an attack to create space for Harris’s 2nd and Harrogate’s 5th try. Aspinall then punished a Broadstreet “hands-in” offence with a penalty kick to secure the win.

Broadstreet never stopped trying and put the Harrogate line under severe pressure with a succession of driving mauls. Harrogate’s defence held firm but they were eventually deemed to have prevented a try illegally. A penalty try was awarded converted by Tom Stokes.

Harrogate: Smithies, McGee, Bottomley, Dench, Harris, Aspinall, Robinson (Wickham 62), Browne, Yorke (Hannan 57), Davies (Sowerby 66), Spencer, Brady (Burns 66), Wilson, Maslaveckas, Lewis (Tasker 75)

Broadstreet: Lester, Summers, Challis,Grimes, McGrory, Richards (Stokes 48), Simpson, Hurst (Bingham 55), Hewitt (Freemantle 40), Loach-Smith, Hersey, Simkiss, Mukarati, Morris, Hall.

Referee: Revis Phillips (RFU)