Otley vs Harrogate

On a day of days for Harrogate U11 rugby, there was an array of snapshots that told the significance of what happened. On the field, there was the clinical brilliance of the Harrogate team as they won 11-5. They did not just handle the pressure of having to justify their inclusion in an extremely strong selection. They embraced it, were inspired by it, and produced some of their very best stuff in the face of strong opposition, Otley having bossed the breakdown area when visiting Rudding in 2016.

This was play reminiscent of the tour victory in Telford in 2016 - a seizing of the moment by seizing the opponents' throat and not letting go. It was elan mixed with physical force. A lethal cocktail.

There was cool focus that led to the opening score, in the patient and precise phases that went before Luca Isaac's exquisite finish in the right corner. There was desire - and awareness and skill - from Charlie Porter and Ted Yeadon to keep the ball alive in contact before the second try scored by Porter himself in the same corner. There was typical cleverness from Freddie Woodward throughout: pacy, mazy, determined running finished powerfully whenever the opposition gave him a sniff. Throughout the free-running carnage of the opening two quarters, Henry Titchmarsh popped up everywhere, as befits his status as a club legend, a player whose workrate and influence is a throwback to nobody less than Martin Johnson.

So many players stepped up. Oli Charlton and Rufus McClean carried the ball time and again, Porter combined power with precision at the ruck, Archie MacDonald and Luke Warburton combined in the centre to keep the ball moving wide where Isaacs and Pettit were often waiting to turn possession into pain for the opposition.

Otley were blown away inside the first 15 minutes, Harrogate reversing the traditional trend of slow starts and strong finishes.

The second 15 ended the game as a contest. Hugo Porter and Paddy Yates came on with Joe Lindsay and Warburton to turn the screw so tight that there was no chance of it coming undone.

It wasn't until the third quarter that we were reminded of what an excellent side Otley are when allowed to be. There can be no doubt that the ferocity of Harrogate's pressing game caught Otley cold and knocked some of the wind out of them. Joe Lindsay caught the kick from the restart and shimmied and hitch-kicked his way past the first line of press defence before hitting the gas and gliding round the outside and eventually over the line. After that, however, Harrogate went off the boil and Otley stepped it up, finding success every time Harrogate missed a tackle.

Harrogate refocused to finish the game with renewed determination, the try-scoring finished by Woodward who proved he had quickly mastered the tap-and-go free kick (being coached by the referee) to burst through a gap which didn't exist before anyone realised that it wasn't there.

On one of the Gate's best showings this season, with the relentless Porter edging a deserved MoM- but in truth it could have been any one of those representing the U11s today. Yeadon, Isaacs and Woodward in particular can consider themselves unlucky not to have their excellence rewarded with a magnum of fanta.