Wharfedale 21 Harrogate 11
Saturday 11 February 2023

Harrogate kicked off against the wind and, having allowed the ball to be touched down behind their own line, was forced to drop out from under the posts. This resulted in Wharfedale going through the phases and Josh Prell scoring an unconverted try in the third minute.

Wharfedale continued to attack forcing Harrogate to concede needless penalties. The latest of these saw Harrison Walker going offside, for which he received a yellow card, resulting in Tom Davidson slotting a penalty.

In the 18th minute, Wharfedale kicked through leading to a try from Henry Macnab, again unconverted. This saw Harrogate’s Rory Macnab being yellow-carded for his action during the lead up to the try.

Gate then had an opportunity to reduce the score but Sam Fox pushed a long range penalty wide, before Davidson added another penalty for Wharfedale to make the score 16 – 0.

Harrogate came back into the game through their forward power and moved into Wharfedale’s 22 toward the end of the half, but was unable to trouble the scoreboard before half-time.

In the second half, Gate did get back into the match. Rory Macnab kicked 2 penalties, with Dale receiving a yellow card at the second of these.

Dale was then reduced to 13 following another yellow card. During this period, Harrogate made good use of possession resulting in Walker scoring in the corner and reducing the deficit to 5 points as the conversion was missed.

Wharfedale responded. Having stolen Gate’s lineout, they eventually made their way into Gate’s 22 and pressurised the line, before a long midfield pass saw Owen Bullock make the score 21 – 11.

Harrogate was not finished and turned down the opportunity of 3 points by opting to kick a penalty to touch. The throw was lost giving Dale an opportunity to counter in their quest for a bonus point try. However there were no further scores, and Harrogate came away empty-handed from this local derby.

Teams

Wharfedale: Verity, Bullock, Prell, Coulton, Canny, Davidson, Macnab H, Beesley, Hirst, Dickinson, Green, Borrill, Burridge, Fawcett, Baldwin (capt). Replacements: Meehan, Weston, Smith, Hodgson, Gaudie.

Harrogate: Macnab R, Raubitschek, Rawlinson, Buckley, Yates, Fox, Olley, Elsayed, Ridgway, Baxter, Simmonds, Brady (capt), Dodds, Hill, Walker. Replacements: Derbyshire, Peace, Jones, Magee, Steene.

Referee: George Ounsley (RFU)

Tim Thorley
Harrogate RUFC