Harrogate 11 - Doncaster 8

With Dave Cozens not performing his pie making duties this weekend, there was nothing for it but to sprint across to the relative safety of the asbestos-covered Harrogate stand and head for higher ground in anticipation of the first tsunami to hit Harrogate for possibly 4 million years.

And so at 10.45, the players took to the pool, with Harrogate opting to receive the ball in the shallow end from a sartorially elegant Doncaster team sporting brand new shirts. This was possibly not the best morning to be wearing a new shirt and I am sure the washing machines of Doncaster were kept busy later on in the day. Conditions were choppy to say the least and this was to influence the whole game from this point in.

Tom Hay received from the kick off and immediately slipped off his feet but managed to push the ball backwards for Harrogate to secure the first ruck. It wasn’t long before the packs had their chance to square up and today’s slightly changed line up was to see Damian Broadhurst take up his position as hooker between Burke and Hare with Harry Martin dropping back to second row with Tom “howling at the moon” Cozens. James Bolger and Luke Price-Gerrard were flankers backed up by the tireless Fraser Goulding at no.8.

The Harrogate pack dominated in both the scrums and at the breakdown but it was a hard-fought battle as Doncaster have a superbly strong and well-organised pack that saw them have the slight advantage at the lineout.

The pressure paid off as after four minutes, Doncaster were penalised for holding on in the ruck on their own 22 and James Finney slotted over the penalty to see Harrogate take a slender 3-0 lead.
The restart saw Doncaster target Tom Hay on the 10m line again and once again Tom slipped and knocked the ball backwards to scurry after it himself and get it to Finney who found touch 20m into the Donny half with a well-aimed kick. Play scampered on and the next scrum was taken against the head by Harrogate who pressed forward, only to lose the slippery ball again and Doncaster kicked for territory. The resulting ruck saw Harrogate penalised on their own 22 for holding on in a repeat of the earlier transgression by Doncaster. The punishment was the same as Doncaster took the three points to level the score 3-3 on eight minutes.

Doncaster pressured once again with their useful no.12 inside centre breaking through on the Harrogate 22 only to meet Tom Hay who “wildebeested” him into touch resulting in a nasty blood bin incident for the injured Donny player on 15 minutes. Thankfully he returned on 25 minutes with no lasting damage.

I know that the Doncaster coaches wanted a mention in the report of their “forwards rumble” so here it is: as half time approached the Doncaster tight head prop made a bid for freedom down the right wing and was promptly brought to ground by the diminutive Harry Barnard. The real mention should go to the Doncaster hooker who was having a brilliant game, hooking cleanly and securely at every Donny put in to secure ball as the Doncaster pack were pushed back time and again by Harrogate.

Half time drew in with deadlock at 3 points each.

The second half was much more of the same with handling errors seeing the ball pass constantly between the two teams. Doncaster seemed much more determined though but Harrogate upped their game to match and spent most of the half camped in the Doncaster 22. Repeated drives from Cozens, Goulding, Broadhurst and Burke+Hare were repelled by the tight Doncaster defence until a penalty on 12 minutes after Doncaster went off their feet in the ruck after a dangerous run in from Ismail saw Joe Hay drive hard and low to cross the line for a try. 8-3 to Harrogate.

The next score resulted from the Doncaster no.8 breaking from the base of the scrum on 26 minutes, 5m from the Harrogate line to power over to level the scores 8-8. The conversion attempt missed the posts by the narrowest of margins, spinning inches to the right of the upright.
Another period of sustained attack by Harrogate saw Joe Hay threaten only to be felled by a high tackle on the Doncaster 22 in front of the posts. Finney took 3 from the resulting penalty on 29 minutes to edge Harrogate ahead 11-8.

In the last minute of the game, Doncaster moved into the Harrogate half, but their full back was caught in possession by an awesome Toby Hall tackle and was stretchered off. Harrogate appeared to be in control once again until Joe Hay listened to his daft brother Tom and passed the ball to nobody in particular on his own 22 whilst half in contact to see a startled receiver knock on. Donny took the scrum and went over on the left wing after a 2 man overlap opened up only to be held up on the line as the ref blew up for full time. To be fair, the whole back line appeared to be pushing up offside but in the heat of the moment...

A game completely dominated by the foul weather conditions saw handling errors galore and lots of slow and steady forwards play. The occasional kick for territory by Doncaster was ably dealt with by Finney at full back and in the end it was the overall domination of the Harrogate pack in the scrums and rucks which saw them gain the advantage over Doncaster. Having said that, the Doncaster team as a whole defended like demons during the second half under sustained pressure from Harrogate on the Donny line and on the few occasions that Doncaster got into the Harrogate 22, they looked very menacing. Points of note were some fierce tackles from Tom Hay and Toby Hall coupled with some great hooking by the Doncaster no.2. Finney’s boot was as secure as ever and his catching of high ball was nothing short of miraculous given the weather conditions. Once again, the domination of the Harrogate pack and the whole team's control of territory was instrumental in the outcome of this match.

So, once the ferry had resumed to get us from the pitch and safely into the clubhouse it was time to say thanks to the Doncaster players for such a tight game and congratulations to those players who went on to play for the development teams straight after this match in conditions which actually worsened (if that was possible). Some of you played a lot of rugby today when it would have been easier to have stayed indoors – well done all.

Statto:

4 Pen Finney (3-0)
8 Pen Doncaster (3-3)

HT

42 T Hay, J (8-3)
56 T Doncaster (8-8)
59 Pen Finney (11-8)

Conditions could have been worse...