Harrogate and Hull end on level terms

This talented Harrogate side is still not “firing on all cylinders”.  Although they scored 3 tries to 1, this was yet another very tight game which they should have won.  They dominated the lines-out with Chris Wilson winning several Hull throws but their powerful scrum fell foul of Mr Makepeace’s law interpretations at times.  Harrogate were 9-0 down at half time and, with 2 men in the sin bin, the gap increased to 14-0 immediately after the interval

After an opening attacking period, Harrogate’s defence was tested by Hull counter attacks, often sparked off by their powerful hooker, Jon Matthews.  Penalty kicks were exchanged and Hull’s Greg Lound was eventually successful when Harrogate went offside.  The pattern continued for the rest of the half and Lound kicked 2 more penalties for Hull.

Immediately after the interval, a mistimed Tom Harvey tackle led to him joining Wilson in the sin bin and Hull soon took advantage of their numerical superiority to go for an attacking scrum from which William Haddow scored.  A Callum Irvine penalty gave Harrogate their first points when they were still down to 13 men but another Lound kick soon restored Hull’s 14 points advantage.  

Harrogate then began to take the game to Hull in earnest.  A quickly taken Danny Matthews penalty led to Kyle Dench crashing over to score in the corner.  Irvine’s conversion attempt narrowly missed.  More Harrogate attacks followed with powerful driving play from Andy Boyde and Tim Heaton.  Kerry Wood tucked in behind yet another driving maul to score but Hull counter attacked from the restart.  They were unable to breach the visiting defence but Lound restored the 5 points gap with a smartly taken drop goal.

A silky Barry Frost run saw him glide through the Hull defence though an excellent cover tackle prevented him from scoring.  More desperate Hull defence led to Devonshire and Bright being sin binned and Harrogate set up another driving maul from which Wood scored his second try to bring the scores level.  

Hull 20   Harrogate 20

Hull: Kirk, Piercy, Heard, Tanumi, Bright, Lound, Haddow, Tamanis, J Matthews, Macklin, Brown, Devonshire, Stafford, Sullivan, Cook.  Subs (all used):-  Price, Alderson, Jobling, Cameron, Holmes

Harrogate: L Minikin, Churchill, Bottomley, Edwards, Frost, Irvine, D Matthews, Boyce, Nyemba, Reaveley, Brady, Boyde, Wilson, Wood, Heaton.  Subs (all used):-  Harvey, Metcalfe, N Minikin, Dench, Aspinall

Referee: Jack Makepeace (RFU)