The Gate squad, containing 2 debutants and another making his first appearance, produced a fantastic defensive effort to come away with a losing bonus point – Saturday 26 November 2022
Gate started the game brightly and took the lead in the 5th minute. The ball was spun left and Will Yates crossed near the corner for his 6th try of the season. Unfortunately, the conversion was missed.
Tynedale equalised 4 minutes later. From a lineout following a penalty, they caught the ball and drove over, with Louis Frankland getting the touchdown for an unconverted try.
Tynedale played most of the rest of the first half on the front foot, and thought they had scored again in the left hand corner, but the try was ruled out for a double movement.
However their pressure eventually told despite Harrogate’s strong defence. Firstly, Harrogate were conceding too many penalties and were reduced to 14 men with 3 minutes of the half left, with Jacob Percival being the unfortunate player to receive a yellow card. Then Tynedale were able to quickly run the ball and ended with Robert Parker scoring the try, which James Blackett converted, making the half-time score 12 – 5 to Tynedale.
The pressure did not let up in the second half with the majority of the play being in Harrogate’s end of the pitch. However, a herculean effort by all Gate’s players, and one or two errors by Tynedale, meant there were no further scores until the very end.
With just minutes to go, Blackett kicked a penalty to put Tynedale 10 points ahead when Harrogate were caught offside in front of the posts. This took Gate out of bonus point territory, but to their credit they fought into Tynedale’s 22. A penalty advantage ensued but Sam Fox calmly kicked a drop goal at the death to ensure Harrogate did not come away empty-handed.
All the players and management team should be extremely proud of their achievements, which shows the enormous strides and improvement the Club has made since the beginning of the season.
Teams
Tynedale: Parker, Roberts, Cramb, Roue, Todhunter, Leslie, Telford, White, Frankland, Caudle, Wearmouth (capt), Dunn, M Hill, Bell, Blackburn. Subs: Carmichael, Dodd, Johnston, Blackett, Grant.
Harrogate: Rawlinson, Miller, Scrase, Fox, Yates, Steene, Penistone, Elsayed, Percival, Baxter, Fenn, Brady (capt), Jackson, Dodds, Spencer-Jones. Subs: Parker-Clarke, Musvaburi, W Hill, Neal, Swanson.
Referee: Dave Charlton (RFU)
Tim Thorley
Harrogate RUFC
27 November 2022
