Harrogate 8 Fylde 33

Star Man Henry Hadfield (Fylde)

Referee Ben Davis

Attendance 300

HT 3-19 FT 8-33

Harrogate
Tries Raubitschek (60)
Conversions
Drop Goals
Penalties Keith (12)

Fylde
Tries Garrod (14), O’Ryan (19), Sturgess (38), Turner (48), Hadfield (68)
Conversions Smith (20, 39, 49, 69)
Drop Goals
Penalties

Yellow Cards
Harrogate Dennis (36)
Fylde Blake (60)

Red Cards
Harrogate
Opposition

Harrogate made their usual promising start and took the lead with an early penalty but, despite consistent domination in the tight, Fylde’s clinical use of possession proved to be more and more effective and they ran out clear winners. This was, of course, a huge improvement on Harrogate’s 80-26 loss at Fylde in September

The Harrogate backs looked threatening from an early, plentiful supply of good ball with Steve Maycock very much to the fore. Jonny Coser broke from a driving maul, Fylde’s defence was penalised and Kit Keith’s penalty put Harrogate in front. Fylde quickly responded when an attempted clearance was charged down and Henry Hadfield scored. Centres Luke Edwards and Jordan Cummins made several incursions but Fylde went further ahead from a Ben O’Ryan try converted by Greg Smith.
Individual Harrogate attacks from Cummins and Harry Barnard were contained and the pack continued to dominate even after Will Dennis was yellow carded and replaced by Tom Baxter. However the next score was a converted try from Scrum Half Matt Sturgess from good line-out ball. This made it 3-19 at half time

The same pattern followed after the interval with well constructed Fylde backs attacks from a growing supply of ball. A slick attack from deep led to a converted Ben Turner try to increase their lead. Harrogate responded with controlled driving mauls forcing Marcus Blake to take a “team yellow card” and further drives led to a Ben Raubitschek try to make it 8-26.

However, Fylde’s high level experience became more manifest and Henry Hadfield scored a converted try to make the final score 8-33