Waterloo belied their bottom of the League position with a spirited first half performance. They went ahead twice and restricted Harrogate to a 14-12 half-time lead. However, boosted by big impacts from the bench, Harrogate opened Waterloo’s floodgates in the second half and won comfortably.

Loo went into a 2 minute lead when Liam McGovern scored in support of a dazzling break by full back, James O’Brien. Harrogate responded immediately with a powerful forward drive and the dynamic Tim Heaton’s try was converted by Joe Rowntree.

However, Waterloo regained the lead with a brilliant O’Brien individual try. He snapped up a loose ball, skilfully chipped through, gathered cleanly and scorched through the home defence for a 60 metre try which he converted himself. Harrogate backs and forwards then combined well to set up a series of attacks which took them into the Waterloo 22. Stand-off, Dickie Davies made a half break and passed to his namesake, tight head prop and man of the match, Simon. Scattering defenders like confetti, Simon thundered over from 20 metres to score a converted try.
From the restart, Harrogate’s pack drove Waterloo off their own ball and Dickie Davies followed up his own attacking chip to score. More powerful forward play resulted in a Ryan Peacey try.

Eighteen year old Rowntree, who was playing in his preferred scrum half position for the first time, grew in confidence as the game went on and pounced on a loose Waterloo pass to score. His half back partner, Davies just missed out on a second try when he was beaten to the touchdown from his own kick through. A scintillating Rowntree break should have resulted in another try but his “scoring” pass was knocked on.

Fresh legs from the Harrogate bench then led to Waterloo being run ragged. Replacement hooker, Ed Spackman crashed over for the next try. Player/coach, Mike Aspinall replaced the excellent young Luke Edwards and his creativity led to imperious home back play for the rest of the match. The third 18 year old debutant, Noel Minikin was the next to score and this was followed by Peacey’s second and Harrogate’s eighth try. Rowntree’s 4 conversions rounded off a satisfactory home day.

Harrogate: Smithies, Miniken, Harris, Dench, Edwards (Aspinall 70), D Davies, Rowntree, Sowerey, Hannan (Spackman 57), S Davies (McMillan 57), Spencer, Brady (Johnson 63), Heaton, Harland (Hewetson 63), Peacey

Waterloo: O’Brien, Matthews, Ross, McGovern, Gee, Reeve, Rees, Gibney, Croft, Nuttal, Wolfenden, Casey, Dolan, Loftus, Ryan

Referee: Matt Carley (Kent)