Harrogate Pythons 2s (The Pirates) started the season with an impressive victory over local rivals Ripon 2s in atrocious conditions at a rainswept Jim Saynor Ground. Ripon kicked off and were immediately put on the backfoot by some strong carries from Will Smith, Ollie Spice and Joel Misseldine and some pinpoint kicking from Jack Whiting. The Pirates opened the scoring when quick feeds from Jimmy Goddard resulted in a ruck on the Ripon line and Whiting picked up to score by the posts. Whiting added the conversion. 7-0 15 mins. The Pirates kept up the intensity and a Ripon clearance kick went straight to Harry Brayshaw out on the wing, who stepped round 3 would be tacklers to race away and touch down under the posts. Extras added by Whiting. 14-0 20 mins. Russell Robertson, making his 150th appearance for the club demanded no drop in intensity, but Ripon’s strong defence kept the Pirates out until half time.
Ripon conceded a penalty at the start of the 2nd half, but Whiting’s kick drifted wide. With Ripon pinned on their line, good work from Connor Spence gave Whiting room to cross for his 2nd try to stretch the Pirates lead to 19-0 on 52 minutes. Ripon came back and pinned the Pirates on their own line, to be met by some determined defence led by Will Milnes. A Ripon attack on the Pirates line broke down and was intercepted by Brayshaw who sped away to go the length of the pitch and touch down under the posts. Whiting again converted. 28-0 65 mins. Another pinpoint kick from Whiting forced an attacking Pirates scrum and the ball was spun wide for James Audsley-Beck to step inside the cover for another try, well converted by Whiting. 33-0 69 mins. A Ripon kick was fed to winger Thomas Roberts who broke his opposite numbers tackle and raced away from his own half to score. 38 -0 74 mins. With the Pirates now dominating another Ripon kick was dealt with by Milnes and the ball quickly went wide to Roberts who ran through 3 tackles to score. 43-0 77 mins. With time running out a Whiting kick was hacked on and fell kindly into the arms of Brayshaw who had too much gas for Ripon and raced away to score. Goddard converted to make the final score Pirates 50 Ripon 2s 0.
After the game the Pirates manager Gareth Drane commented “ it’s always nice to score 50 points against anyone, but particularly pleasing to do it against such a strong outfit as Ripon. Despite the atrocious conditions both teams tried to play an open game and ball handling was excellent from both teams. However it was very pleasing that we held Ripon to nil as we were under the cosh at times especially in the 2nd half and our defence was top class”.
Next weekend the Pythons travel to Baildon in the Yorkshire cup and the Pirates currently have a week off.
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