A combination of school rugby, injuries, family commitments, and illness conspired to give us just 12 players for today’s game at Wetherby. This is the bare minimum that is allowed for the result to count in the league. As we were the team that was low on numbers, Wetherby were allowed an extra player. To add to the fun, we only had one front row player, so our usual scrum dominance wouldn’t be a factor as we went uncontested.

Heads were down a bit at the start as a heavy defeat looked on the cards. It turns out that there was a heavy defeat, but not the way the players feared.

Two tries in the first few minutes from James and Josh made a nice 0-12 cushion to start the game. Wetherby came back though with two tries of their own in the first half and one quickly after the break to take the lead at 17-12.

For some reason though it still felt like it would be a Harrogate victory, and so it turned out. The reduced number of players and the big pitch meant that there was lots of space to run and the game flowed back and forth very quickly. As it happens there was more ‘forth’ than ‘back’ as Conor scored 2 in 4 minutes with some great line breaks, both converted by Ev. Wetherby got one back, but then Curtis and Josh got two more for Harrogate. Another for Wetherby, before Josh got his hat trick and then Hugo finished off the match with another great running try.

At the final reckoning, Harrogate won the try contest by 8 - 5. The final score was 52 -29 to Harrogate.

After the match the referee commented on what a good game it had been and how pleased she was that our players had got over their initial down-heartedness to play it in such good spirits.

Well done to everyone.