Mike Aspinall’s 3rd minute penalty opened Harrogate’s scoring and, almost immediately, he set up the first try. A clever attacking chip from the stand-off was gathered and the ball sped through quick hands for Steve Parsons to score. Aspinall’s conversion made it 10-0. The Bees’ mini recovery followed with Ryan Wederall touching down from a driving maul and Tom Davidson converting .

A Bees high tackle led to another successful Aspinall penalty and Harrogate tried to consolidate their position with wave after wave of attacking rugby. The Bees defended well until, with half time approaching, a well judged Aspinall miss pass put Ed Smithies over in the corner. Smithies cut in and beat several more defenders before touching down to give a straightforward conversion and make it 20-7 at half time.

The Bees have a relegation battle on their hands and they attacked determinedly from the restart. Their main weapon is their powerful driving maul but the home defence was equal to it. No8,Ryan Peacey organised the Harrogate defence, well supported by Tim Heaton, a blind side workhorse.

After 15 minutes of determined defence, Harrogate got into the Bees’ half and set up a series of attacking 5 metre scrums. Peacey eventually powered over and the conversion seemed to have dashed any Bees’ hopes of a recovery.
However, with 10 minutes of normal time remaining, a dust up resulted in a yellow card for Harrogate’s Kyle Dench. This might have been Bee’s opportunity to get back in the game but Formula 1 Harrogate went into overdrive.
Aspinall turned defence into attack with a searing midfield break. Support was on hand and the ball was cycled to Parsons who scored his second try and secured the bonus point.

In injury time, replacement stand-off, Dickie Davies mesmerised the Bees’ defence with his sleight of hand and a quicksilver break. Jamie Broadley supported the move which was carried on by Parsons. His hat trick try seemed certain but he was tackled just short of the line. Open side flanker Ed Maslaveckas snapped up the loose ball to score and Davies converted to make the final score 41-7.

Harrogate: Smithies (Hart 74), McGee, Dench, Parsons, Broadley, Aspinall (Davies 74), Wickham, Sowerey, Hannan (Yorke 74), McMillan (Browne 53), Spencer, Lewis, Heaton, Maslaveckas, Peacey (Brady 74)

Bradford & Bingley: Davidson, Almond, Dixon, McBirnie, Mafi, Jericevich, Greaves, Raper, Graham, Wederall, Mitchell, Hughes, Ford, Cokell, Muckault.

Referee: Nick Cockburn (RFU).