A winning start to the league

The Colts fight back against Moortown

The league started with an away match at Moortown. We had good availability, with 11 U17s and 10 U18s turning out.

After some 10 minutes or so of back and forth rugby, we ran in a couple of nice tries from Sam Barker and Ben Raubitschek. Evan Thomas converted one to take it to 12-0 and it was looking like an easy day. That wasn't to be though as both sides were playing good rugby and scoring opportunities were few and far between. Eventually Moortown's increased pressure told and they scored just before the whistle to take it to 12-7 at half time.

After the break Sam Barker scored again quickly (converted by Evan) to take it to 19-7, but shortly after that Harrogate were rocked by two quick converted tries from Moortown taking the lead away. There were about 20 minutes left at this point and there was certainly a bit of muttering from the sidelines that the game might have slipped away.

The pivotal moment in the match came 14 minutes later when a penalty was awarded to Harrogate that Luke Willard agreed to attempt, despite having just come on. (Again, there was a certain amount of touchline captaincy suggesting that kicking for the corner was the right move...) Luke made the kick, Harrogate took the lead back, and the mood on the pitch seemed to change to one of supreme confidence.

The last 10 minutes or so saw lots of good rugby, and showed off Harrogate's high fitness levels (keep that Thursday training going) with tries for Conor Miller, Luke Willard and another for Ben R.

The final score of 39-21 flattered Harrogate somewhat, in that it had been much tighter than that for the bulk of the match, but that's not the point is it...

Man of the Match was Eoin Harrison