In the second game of this season, back in September, we went to Grassington and suffered our only defeat of the league so far. Today was the return fixture...

Wharfedale arrived at somewhat of a disadvantage, having only got 13 players. We know how that feels, but for a change this week we had a full complement, and even had some subs - a luxury we should endeavour to emulate through the rest of the season.

The game started brightly with a try after 4 minutes from the returning Adam Brown, who has been on school rugby duty for most of the season so far, converted by Rhys Tolley. It was answered by a converted try from Wharfedale a few minutes later to remind Harrogate that they had a game on. It was Gate's turn to score next with a fly hack picked up by Adam and converted by Rhys. Adam played a big part in the next try too, breaking free down the left wing before passing to Jack Kennell who made it virtually to the line and then offloaded nicely from the tackle for Ben Raubitschek to score. For a change, Rhys missed the conversion, so the half time score was 19-7.

After the break it was a bit of a feast of tries. First Jack Eardsley scored from a typically strong Harrogate scrum (conv Tolley), then minutes later Ollie Henry burst through for another (conv Tolley again). Wharfedale had a nice passage of play next that ended with a big driving maul going over the line, but it was held up by the stalwart Harrogate defence. They did respond to this disappointment with a converted try, but then shipped a loose pass that was snapped up by Rhys, who scored under the posts (and of course, converted). One more try each (the final Harrogate effort scored by Evan Thomas) and that was that. The final score of 45-21 probably flattered the home team again, but winning without being spectacular is becoming something of a habit. That's 9 wins from 10 games in the league now. Just three more to go to wrap it up.

Credit is certainly due to Wharfedale, who kept going right to the end, with no substitutes and no acrimony.