Harrogate 29 Bradford & Bingley 5: Bees forced to bow to dominant Harrogate

There were some fine individual performances but each player contributed hugely, including the three substitutes who made significant second-half contributions.

Harrogate dominated possession throughout. They had the edge over the much vaunted Bees pack in the scrums, made several big turnovers in the loose and had almost complete control of the line-out.

Tom Harvey, Chris Wilson and the outstanding Jake Brady stole several Bees’ balls and the pressure mounted. Bees defended valiantly throughout but the pressure had to tell.

Tim Heaton scored the first try after half-an-hour. He crashed over after Harrogate had mounted a 15 metres driving maul from an attacking line-out.

Oli Denton then glided over the mud to set up a counter-attack from deep and another controlled Harrogate drive ended in a try for Nathan Smith, converted by Callum Irvine.

Denton then sprinted clear after a powerful break by Kyle Dench but a knock-on ended the move on the stroke of half-time.

The same pattern continued after the interval. Harvey and Jake Brady linked to drive through the defence and replacement full-back Mike Aspinall made an incisive run from defence. The ball was quickly recycled and Irvine scythed through for a fine converted try.

The roles were reversed for Harrogate’s next try when Irvine made the break and created space for Aspinall to score.

The gutsy Bees pack had their best period of the game and mounted a series of driving mauls and No 8 Dan Cookson tucked in behind his pack for a consolation try.

Home pressure continued with scrum-half Phil Wickham linking effectively between forwards and backs.

Apart from their scrummaging duties, props Dan Metcalfe and Jimmy Browne drove strongly in the loose and it was a strong break from the former which set up Aspinall’s second try on the right to make the final score 29-5.