Harrogate U15 v Pocklington

With the second round of the IDT matches depriving clubs of the top 120 players in Yorkshire clubs faced the challenge of fulfilling fixtures with depleted ranks.

With four players representing North Yorkshire and another five injured and three on school or family trips Harrogate's trip to Pocklington meant a bit of organisational chaos. With only 18 players travelling Harrogate were still able to fulfil the fixture and all credit to Pocklington who, twenty minutes prior to the kick-off, still only had 12 players available. However late arrivals allowed a full 15 v 15 match to take place and both teams set to throwing their weight into the challenge.

With a number of players playing out of position Gate were the first to score when, after 5 minutes, Luke Gair was fed the ball inside his own half. In his first game back since injury three weeks ago the flying winger, playing at Full-Back, eased his way through the home teams defence. changing pace, swerving and cutting through Gair eased down to go under the posts with an Astonesk swallow dive. The conversion by Jack London, playing out of position at Fly-half, made the score 7 - 0.

Jack London got on the score sheet again three minutes later himself with an outrageous dummy, side-step and acceleration he split the Pocklington defence wide open. With a further 75m to go he pinned his ears back and set off to go under the posts for Try number 2. Converting his own Try the score stood at 14 - 0 inside 10 minutes.

Gate then got into the free-flowing spirit a little too much and lost their shape and composure and, following a few changes of personnel and position, it took the visitors till the quarter mark to score again. With a clear liking for the long range strikes Jack London again threw a dummy pass to fool the world, not, but Pocklington bought it and London set off through the rush defence to sprint 75m to go in under the posts. Again Converting his own try Gate now led 21-0. From the resultant kick off Pocklington gifted the ball to Lozza Hargreaves who, after wandering sideways for 8 - 10m set off up the pitch for his first try of the morning. With London making his kicks Gate looked like they were heading in at half time in style.

But taking the foot off the accelerator Pocklington came back at the visitors. Working on the short driving game the home side took the ball down the pitch and went over for a short range Try and easy conversion for a half-time score of 28 - 7.

Harrogate finished off the first half with Culonn Troy, newly promoted as Captain of his school team (Ashville), going over from short range. The scoring opportunity was set up by Tom Brennan who nearly went in himself looking to finish off a slick handling move by the backs. But a pulling hamstring robbed Tom of his pace and he was caught short of the line he turned and fed the ball to Troy who dived over. Again London converted to move the score on to 35 - 7.

With the score clearly in the favour of the visitors Harrogate started to relax again, thinking the game was won, only for Pocklington to take advantage of the second half by moving the ball down the pitch for their second try. At 35-14 after only 4 minutes of the second half Pocklington looked like making a go of it and they were certainly on the front foot!

Harrogate needed to do something as the home team began to play with some purpose. The spark for Gate came from the backs where, after a missed clearance kick by Pocklington was collected and the Harrogate Centres Ollie Collingwood and Ollie Ward linked to feed the ball to winger for the day Dominic Marsh. Settling off like some rampaging bull Marsh dismissed the challenges from three would-be tacklers before feeding to Jack London on his outside to go in for his third try. But credit to Marsh for setting up the scoring situation. 42 - 14

Marsh was now on fire and, four minutes later, set off on another dynamic run up the heart fo the home defence. Quick Ruck ball and driving play from the forwards set up Ollie Ward to feed (Lozza), Lawrence Hargreaves, on the wing to takle the ball up the field. Although normally a back five forward Lozza looked comfortable out on the wing in attack and, although tackled some 20 m out stayed strong in the tackle and fed Luke Gair to go in for his second of the game. London converted to take the score to 49 - 14.

Although Pocklington never gave up, claiming their third try of the game mid-way through the second half, Gate closed the game out with a second try from Lozza Hargreaves after a neat break from Tom Mitchell. This try and the final one fo the day, again going to Lozza Hargreaves the flying winger, were un converted so the match ended at 59-19.

Well done to all who played and thanks to Pocklington for being excellent hosts.