Harrogate's attacking style wins the day

A late start for some, but an earlier start for others, especially for this match reporter who mis-read the website and turned up at the club an hour early with a very angry teenager in tow. This cost me but benefitted bacon sandwich revenues at Harrogate as feeding him was the only way to ensure calm. However, it did afford an excellent opportunity to watch the Harrogate U13s edge out Middlesbrough in the Yorkshire Cup, 15-14 in a thrilling end-to-end game. Well done to them. However, it did bring back memories that our cup run ended on a technicality with the 0-0 draw at home vs York just a few weeks ago. So, today we start on the trail of the Yorkshire Plate. Apparently this is a piece of silverware, but on a chilly day like today and once more with pies in constraint, it conjures up an image of a large oval platter, brimming with Yorkshire Puds and everything else that goes with them…

Ahem, anyway, thoughts must get back to the match and off food for a moment, and our thoughts were also with the Harriers and their trip to the pleasant uplands to the north of Bradford, nestling beneath the southern flanks of Ilkley Moor. A good result for them too under what were somewhat challenging conditions under which to play rugby. However, play they did and stuck to their game plan to beat Baildon 7-40. Once again, rugby was the winner.

So, back to Claro Road and it was good to see Chris Igoe sporting a rather fetching black eye patch but bad to hear that he will be missing for a few more weeks to come. Chris seems unfazed by his injuries though but does seem to flap when anyone gets too near to his i-phone – the umbilical device which connects all teenagers to the outside world.

Pitch 1 was ours for the taking today and it was definitely soft underfoot, but made pitch 3 look like a distant memory. It is rumoured that Allied British Ports had made a bid for pitch 3 to build the new Harrogate docks – watch this space.

At 1pm prompt we kicked off to Huddersfield who were quickly turned over in their own half by Joseph Hay and James Bolger. The two forwards worked well with Alex Wyatt to threaten the Huddersfield defence to allow the backs to release Ram Ismail on 2 minutes to score under the posts with a conversion added by James Finney, taking Harrogate 7-0 up.

The run of play continued in Harrogate’s favour and a take against the head showed the visitors that the Harrogate scrum was a unit not to be taken lightly and this was continued when tight head prop Joseph Hay delivered a crunching tackle to turn over possession which then allowed a fast passing move from Ellis to George to Hall to Ismail and finally to Bolger to threaten again on 10 minutes. This was a persistent move from Harrogate, with the highly mobile back row popping up to strengthen and support the backs attacking line after the tight 5 had nailed possession from their opponents. A penalty for offside then saw loose head prop Wiley and Ismail linking well to send Ismail over for his 2nd on 15 minutes. Harrogate 12, Huddersfield 0.

The restart was like Groundhog Day as Huddersfield kicked straight into the secure hands of James Keane who would set off like clockwork to make 15-20m before offloading to the supporting back row. A brief period of forward phase play saw Harrogate inch downfield again and this time James Keane crossed the line for a fine try, converted by Finney to stretch the lead to 19-0 on 18 minutes.

Tempers now began to fray and a handbagging session broke out around the impeccably coiffeured Ismail no doubt in an attempt to stop him scoring any more tries. However the Huddersfield tactic misfired as Ismail promptly performed a jinking 50m run from the expertly-taken scrum to prove that rugby beats fists. This led to the 2nd scrum against the head taken by the Harrogate pack and Hall offloaded diligently to Finney who converted his own resulting try to see Harrogate edge forward to 26-0 on 23 minutes.

The Groundhog Day kick off to Keane resulted in the same result for Huddersfield, but this time a rare turnover for Huddersfield saw them put the Harrogate line under pressure for a couple of minutes until a fine 60m kick from Finney instantly turned the tables to allow Joseph Hay, James Bolger and Damian Broadhurst to counter-attack the Huddersfield line, resulting in a hat trick for Ram Ismail on 29 minutes as he took Harrogate into the break 31-0.

The second half saw the kick off drop short of 10 metres and the resulting scrum set up a good Harrogate attack. However, a missed pass allowed Huddersfield to break and take a very early try, converted to open the score up to 31-7.

Shortly after the restart, Huddersfield were awarded a lineout 10m from the ‘Gate line, but Harrogate stole well through the irrepressible Tom Cozens allowing quick ball to Ismail who broke from the 22 to the half way line then offloaded to Keane in support who took an angle to the centre of the Huddersfield 22 and a sweet offload to Bolger saw him score under the posts on 39 minutes, converted by Finney to pull away again 38-7.

The restart saw more agile attacking play from Harrogate with Finney and Kent covering 50m in support of each other, with Robbie Kent pulled up just a metre short by a desperate Huddersfield cover tackle. Huddersfield came back through handling errors by ‘Gate and threatened the Harrogate 22, but a series of sloppy handling errors allowed the proactive Harrogate defence to push Huddersfield back to their own 22. A scrum in that zone was then taken against the head by the dominant Harrogate pack to allow a further attack on the left wing when a Huddersfield player in a stunning re-enactment of Swan Lake dived over the top of the ruck to take a pop at Mohindra, who after much provocation responded and was binned for his troubles along with Rudolf Nureyev from Huddersfield.

The resulting scrum was once again taken against the head by Harrogate to open up a scoring opportunity for the ever-present Toby Hall to score a well-deserved try on 49 minutes. Finney once again took the extras and Harrogate pushed forward to 45-7.

Only one minute after that, Hall once again broke from the half way line to release Bruno Horacio on the 22m line with 4 defenders still to beat. He took a direct line and sprinted through two tackles before taking the last two defenders over the line with him for a powerful winger’s try. 50-7 to Harrogate on 50 minutes.

In the final attacking move of the game, Harrogate saw James Keane popping up outrageously in a well-formed backs attack line, supported by prop Wylie and winger Horacio to push to within 10m of the Huddersfield line after Horacio found himself rather unexpectedly with Broadhurst and Goulding latching on behind him to drive him like a battering ram at the try line. The scrum on 5m at the final play saw the Harrogate backs picking a set move to use from the cleanly delivered ball with Finney and Kent linking for Kent to score in the left corner for a final score of 57-7 after the Finney conversion.

So, a match which at times was ill-tempered and fractious but which had little effect on Harrogate’s game plan. The forwards provided a huge territorial and possession advantage which the backs used at will to attack. All credit to Huddersfield who were hungry for any opportunity and defended admirably. They had little possession or territory from their forwards and it was the performance of the tight 5 for Harrogate coupled with a very mobile back row which unleashed a try-hungry backs line in wave after wave of unrelenting attacking play. If anything, the intensity of effort from both teams increased as the match went on which was testament to both groups of players.

Rumours of a port opening up on pitch 3 sent Captain Igoe, resplendent with eye patch and parrot scuttling off to see if he could moor the Black Pig there accompanied by an unnamed tight 5 forward masquerading as Cut-Throat Jake whilst another unnamed backs player wandered off after them with his handbag and immaculately tailored barnet. After all, everyone loves a sailor!