On another late summer Saturday afternoon that was made for running rugby Harrogate Georgians made the short trip across from Rudding Park due to the World Cycling Championships being staged around the town.
Following on from last weekend’s tight league victory over Hull Ionians the Foresters had trained well but with an enforced change due to the late injury withdrawal of centre Adam Williamson and the news that Harrogate didn’t arrive with the full compliment of front row and uncontested scrums to be taken minds were not fully switched on from the warm up.
The Foresters were sloppy from the kick off and early Harrogate pressure yielded a converted penalty kick. A few strong words from the senior heads in the young squad behind the sticks worked wonders and the Foresters gained territory and following a line out and a couple of phases the ball was fed to stand off Louis Verity who scored the side’s first try of the afternoon just as he had last week. The extras were added by Rory MacNab.
Stalemate was held for another 10 minutes until some continued pressure from the Foresters pack resulted in a try to the left of the posts by hooker Madison Hunting who was reminiscent of Dan Solomi with a quick scoop and scoot from an unguarded attacking ruck. The conversion was missed.
Back came Harrogate themselves with some sustained pressure resulting in their own unconverted try. But again the Foresters stepped up after some words and a good supporting line from Joe Metcalfe carried him over the whitewash for another converted try just by half time (19-8).
Into the second half and the Foresters kicked on with some tactical changes by the coaching staff. First to benefit was Sam Mason following good work by the forwards for an unconverted try. Again good continuity from forwards and backs resulted in pressure on the Harrogate line with lock Sam Smith charging down a box kick from the Georgians 9 and following up to crash over wide on the left for an unconverted try.
The foot was taken off the gas with the bonus point secured and Harrogate came back to crash over in the corner. Some more choice words galvanized the Foresters into some concerted efforts resulting in two more converted tries by Owen Bullock coming in off his wing and going over under the posts from 1st phase ball and again Louis Verity rounding off a solid day to leave the scores at 43-13.
All in all it had been a good day at the office.
Onwards again to this weekends first away fixture at Scunthorpe.
Team: – 1. George Altham 2. Madison Hunting, 3. Sam Dickinson , 4. Sam Smith, 5. Simon Borrill, 6. Joe Metcalfe, 7. Oliver Snowdon, 8. Tom Whyte (c), 9. Henry MacNab, 10. Louis Verity, 11. Owen Bullock , 12. Sam Mason, 13. Josh Prell, 14. Bradley Viner 15. Ryan Hodgson.
Replacements: – 16. Tom Jackson, 17. Ben Patchett, 18. Joe Fawcett, 19. Andrew Hodgson , 20. Adam Williamson (unused).