Harrogate Ladies make club history by taking two full teams to Bishop Auckland!

On Sunday 4th December Harrogate Ladies made club history by taking 36 players to Bishop Auckland to field two Ladies’ teams. This comes as a huge achievement for the Ladies and shows how far the team has come over the last year; in many of last season’s games it was a struggle to scrape together one team. This epitomizes not only the strength and commitment of the team but also the support of the management, coaches and club as a whole.

Harrogate’s second team kicked off at 13.30; although they were expecting to play 15’s they instead played a game of 10s due to Bishop’s availability. The match began messily, bringing about a mix of Harrogate and Bishop Scrums. However, Harrogate’s formation steadily improved as the new team became familiar with one another.

Ten minutes in, Harrogate showed their ownership over the play, following a ruck on the far right of the pitch Bishop left a huge hole in their defence which was readily taken advantage of by the Harrogate forwards. After a quick pick and go, Harrogate Hooker, Ellie Stainthorp found the perfect offload to Centre, Maxie barker who scored after a heavy hand off and speedy step. This was the start of a streak for Harrogate as some forceful play by the forwards resulted in Prop, Grace Keyes charging down the Bishop defence to score Harrogate’s second try of the match and bringing the score to 10-0.

The forwards kept the avid attack up, drawing in the defence and opening spaces for the backs. This led to the next try by Winger,Rosie Gillies. Following Gillies' try and the restart it was Harrogate's turn to defend. Bishop pushed their way forward, steadily advancing towards try line territory. Nevertheless, after several big tackles, the ball was lost by Bishop and the Harrogate attack bounced back with a debut try from Number 8, Dawn Beadle. Drawing the first half was Full Back, Lexy Blake receiving the ball off the scrum and accelerating her way through the last line of Bishop defence to take her first try of the match bringing the score 15-0.

As the second half began Bishop battled back and showed off some powerful play which kept Harrogate at bay. Though, after a knock on the ball made its way to Harrogate Centre, April Morrisey who made a relentless run and careered through the centre of the Bishop defence to score her first try. Upon the restart the Harrogate defence had relaxed and the Bishop backs broke through the line scoring 3 consecutive tries bringing the score to 20-15.

This proved to be a wakeup call for Harrogate as after the next restart they gained possession quickly and Morrisey stormed forwards to take her second try of the game. Harrogate then regained possession, but Bishop kept them at bay by keeping the defensive line strong. This wasn’t enough to stop Beadle who took advantage of a quick pop pass in Bishop territory and scored her second try of the match and was quickly followed by her 3rd try! Harrogate pulled out all the stops up until the final whistle and the match finished on a second try from Winger, Rosie Gillies.
The final score was 60-15 to Harrogate with conversions from Evie Tonkin on her Harrogate debut game and Jess Deacy.

Harrogate's 1st XV team kicked off at 14.15 and were put under pressure from Bishop's play from the off. After an early Bishop try Harrogate were 7-0 down. At this point however, Harrogate switched on and showed their strength and passion as a team. A series of hard hits were laid on from both Harrogate and Bishop and after some harsh rucking Bishop managed to score their second try which was also converted, making the score 14-0.

Harrogate fought back as the forwards continued to put in some hefty hits and the backs worked together to successfully prevent Bishop scoring a third try. Although, after some frustrating scenarios in the breakdown area Bishop secured a third try which was also followed by a conversion; the score was 21-0. In response to this Harrogate came back fiercer than ever and quickly pushed up into Bishop’s half of the pitch, after a successful Harrogate scrum the ball was carried further towards the try line and it was Number 8, Ellie Ward who powered over the line. Ward’s try brought the score to 21-5 just before the end of the second half.

The second half was fast paced and frenzied with some questionable decisions made by the referee and although there were some superb skills and passing portrayed by Harrogate, the play was very mixed in terms of possession. No more tries were scored on either part and the final score at full time was 21-5 to Bishop Auckland.

Harrogate Ladies play their next game on Sunday 11th December away at York RI. This is followed by a charity (Santas vs Elves) match at Rudding Lane on Saturday 17th December – everybody is welcome, this will be a fabulous event suitable for all the family!