Luctonians vs Harrogate

Luctonians’ standard of play belies their lowly League position making it hard to believe that a team of this quality could be relegated. However, as we know from 3 years ago, this can definitely happen.

After 12 minutes of attacking play from both sides, something had to give and it was Luctonians who scored first. A miss pass to the right put Adam Knight into space to score a try in the corner, converted by Geraint Langdon. Harrogate counter attacked immediately but James Audsley-Beck sustained a nasty facial injury in trying to charge down a clearance and had to leave the field.

the home defence and Bottomley jinked his way over for a fine try converted by Joe Rowntree. Luctonians responded with more attacks and, after Boyde had been yellow carded and, in a 4 minutes purple patch, scored 2 converted tries from prop Ashley Horner and centre Jon Hughes to go 21-7 ahead.

Harrogate kept their shape and started to put the home defence under sustained pressure. Rowntree kicked a penalty when Luctonians were forced to go offside and followed this with a prodigious kick from half way after a Luctonians scrum offence. The pressure continued with powerful scrummaging from Boyde, Aarin Yorke and Will Scholey supported by Nathan Smith and Tom Harvey.. Luctonians conceded another offside penalty after Harrogate mounted an attack from a strike against the head and Rowntree’s third success whittled the home lead down to 21-16. More Boyde power play set up another Harrogate attack just before the interval. A clever Callum Irvine chip kick was seized on by Lewis Minikin whose converted try put Harrogate 21-23 ahead at the break.

From the restart, Harrogate seemed to be taking charge and, when Langdon was yellow carded for preventing a Harrogate quick penalty, Rowntree’s kick duly extended the lead to 21-26. A Harrogate attacking chip was then kicked dead from over the line by Luctonians to give the visitors a 5 metres scrum. Quick ball was spun to Luke Edwards who scored in the corner though the attempted touchline conversion narrowly missed. The concerted Harrogate attacks continued and, minutes later the lead was further extended by another Rowntree penalty and the game seemed to be over.

Luctonians had other ideas and their backs then went through their paces to put Harrogate on the defensive. Winger, Jimmy Morris burst through and round the visiting defence for an excellent bonus point winning individual try. Luctonians continued to attack and, when the Harrogate defence was penalised in the dying moments, opted to kick a penalty goal to give them a second well deserved bonus point.

Luctonians: Doyle, Norris, Hughes, Langdon, T Jones, Williams, Horner, Street, R Jones, Cheasley, Kelly,
D Smith, Hackley, S Jones. Subs (all used) Button, Jacques, Talbot, James Burton

Harrogate: Rowntree, Bottomley, L Minikin, Edwards, Audsley-Beck, Irvine, Wickham, Boyde, Yorke, Scholey, N Smith, Harvey, Wilson, Wood, Enslin. Subs used:- Coser, N Minikin, Matthews, Aspinall

Referee: Dan Parrott (SE).

Match report by Bill Barrack