On a windy and wet day at The Jim Saynor Ground Harrogate Pythons entertained local rivals Wensleydale for their first clash of the season. Last season both sides won their away fixtures – something ‘half’ repeated this season with Dale coming out victors 29-38.
The visitors took advantage of the home sides seemingly lack of determination in the first 10 minutes scoring 2 tries, 0-12. Liley’s men responded as they took control of their own scrum on the Dale 22m line. Sam Rowntree picks up at number 8 and breaks towards the line. Held just short Harry Butler carries to the base of the posts and sets the ball. Andrew MacKay spots a gap and dives over to score. Ben Pryor adds the 2 points, 7-12.
Dale come back hard using their big pack to carry between phases. Rufus Palfreman and Rhys Cory make huge tackles to halt their progress. A mistake in attack gives The Pythons a scrum on their own 10m line. MacKay puts Nick bell into space who uses his pace to round the defence on the outside. He kicks ahead and regains the ball 25m out, feeds Jed Carr who floats a long pass to Palfreman to touch down in the corner, 12-12.
Butler carries the ball hard and wins a penalty on half way. Pryor is successful and The Pythons take the lead, 15-12. Dale pressurise the home line again and use width to touch down in the corner 15-17. Minutes later the away side repeat the plan of the other side of the pitch to score on the stroke of half time, 15-24.
The second half starts well with Butler, Will Milnes and Harry Jackson gaining ground. Dale clear their lines following a string of penalties halting the home side’s progress. Dale score 2 more tries, 15-38 on 60 minutes.
The Pythons take control of the game and it was Dale who started conceding penalties. Some great work by Freddie Abrahams and Arron Woods took play into The Dale 22. A tap penalty by Abrahams to Carr put Jackson close to the line who off loads to Pryor to burrow his way over the line. He converts his own try 22-38. George Booth and Woods combine well together to get play into the Dale half. Carr kicks a penalty to 15m. Marcus Fotherby secures the ball and The Pythons begin the drive, Jordan Payne charges from close and scores next to the posts, Pryor with the extras, 29-38 full time.
After the game coach John Liley said,” Pythons showed too much respect to visiting side Wensleydale. Having conceded two early tries Pythons responded positively to eventually take the lead 15-12. This was the point that we should have taken a stronger hold on the game. With all the good things we did in the game we similarly made too many mistakes and provided Wensleydale with too much possession due to our lack of control on the game.
The positives at the end of a disappointing scoreline was that we continued to the very end to record a losing bonus point. If we had a more ruthless approach we wouldn’t have finished 2nd best in our last two league games.”
The Pythons travel to West Leeds for the next league fixture.
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