The Macclesfield U12 festival is an invitation only affair for the North, Midlands and Wales , comprising mainly County cup and LandRover winning sides, so real top class junior rugby. This was always going to be a learning opportunity for Harrogate, an attempt to see where we stand in the grand scheme of things.

Our pool opponents were Banbury & Crewe, sadly a number of teams had withdrawn from the tournament. Our first match was against Banbury, a team that last weekend beat last Yorkshire cup winners Otley by 5 tries , and cup runners Up York by 33-0 . Banbury were very competent, and Harrogate held on well but lost by 3 tries. Next up a strong Crewe team, Harrogate struggled and lost by 4 tries.

Later came the Floodlit knockout stages on the Macclesfield 1st XV pitch. Our next match against Sheffield Tigers, a very close game, Harrogate rising to the challenge and drew the game 0-0, narrowly missing out on a a score. With only five minutes rest, our last game came against a huge Derby side, a game that Harrogate dominated for most of the match, failing to score when the opportunity arose, and then let in an easy try at the end to go down by 5 points to nil.

A great experience for all the boys, WELL DONE. Quite a few learning points from the day! Fitness, speed, good decision making, vision – well what else is rugby about?

Report by Tim McClune.