Hull capitalise on Harrogate errors while the Students prove a class apart from Huddersfield

Hull held a narrow 24-20 half-time lead and edged further ahead with a penalty before Harrogate gifted them the softest of tries from a bad knock-on on the line.

The opening score came from a 40-metre break by Harrogate’s Callum Irvine.

He showed pace and balance to dance through the visiting defence for a brilliant individual try.

His conversion gave Harrogate a fifth-minute 7-0 lead.

Hull responded immediately with a spirited attack and James Cameron kicked a penalty after Harrogate went offside.

More visiting pressure followed when Harrogate again conceded a penalty and Rob Devonshire tucked in behind a driving maul to score a trademark Hull forwards’ try.

Harrogate then produced a series of attacking moves with Sam Bottomley a constant threat and Tim Heaton excelling in attack and defence.

A well-constructed forward drive was taken on by Jimmy Browne, who offloaded to Jack Bergmanas, who then split Hull’s defence with a skilfully angled run to score.

An even period of play followed before Harrogate conceded another penalty to give Hull an attacking scrum and Oliver Cook burst through for a crucial try.

Hull were then penalised for coming in from the side and Harrogate attacked from the subsequent lineout.

Ed Smithies made the extra man and gave a scoring pass to Noel Minikin.

As half-time approached, Hull attacked again on the left and Jim Wigglesworth squirmed over to give the visitors a narrow lead.

Harrogate’s disastrous third quarter followed and they were playing catch-up rugby from then.

They continued to attack at every opportunity but a string of handling errors kept denying them scores.

Eventually, Smithies again came into the line to make an overlap and score. Harrogate continued to press for the rest of the match but also continued to deny themselves scoring opportunities with basic mistakes.

The result left Hull in eighth place after their 11th victory in 22 matches. They are 18 points ahead of Harrogate, who are 13th after their 14th defeat.

HUDDERSFIELD saw their hopes of winning the league dented by a heavy home defeat against leaders Loughborough.

The Students dominated up front and proved why they are the team to beat at the moment.

Punishing Huddersfield’s mistakes and demonstrating incisive play in a fixture which had twice fallen victim to the weather, they took the lead with a pushover try in the early stages to set the hosts on the back foot.

The score was doubled to 10-0 after 15 minutes and extended to 17-0 following the award of a penalty try on 24 minutes, the pressure telling on the Huddersfield defence as they were adjudged to have collapsed a maul.

Chris Johnson managed a penalty for the home side but there was more punishment to come after half-time.

A converted interception try took the score to 24-3 before Huddersfield were finally able to execute their game plan.

Following a number of pick and goes through the middle, which drew a penalty, the resulting lineout was driven over, allowing captain Nick Sharp to touch down.

Loughborough’s superiority was defined by the two further tries and it proved a tough lesson for the well-beaten home team, who suffered their sixth defeat of the season.

The result left the table-topping Students 16 points ahead of second-placed Huddersfield after 22 games each.