Wood punishes bereft Bees as Gate’s promotion bid is boosted by Wackett

The home side never looked like they were going to pull back the deficit despite playing with the slope and a strong wind at their backs in the second half.

Aside from the odd bullocking run from skipper Guy Ford and a couple of half-breaks from winger Adam Wellington, the Bees looked bereft of any attacking ideas and it was the Sandal back line which looked the sharper whenever they had the ball in hand.

Indeed the Sandal pack were largely a match for the Bees pack who were able to bully the opposition off the ball in most games over the last couple of seasons.

The Bees pack did manage to engage the forward gears from a scrum near the Sandal line to allow Guy Ford to plough over for their score late in the first half, but there was not much for the Wagon Lane crowd to cheer from a pedestrian performance.

Sandal were often quickest to the breakdown and turned over a half-dozen possessions from the tackle. The visiting backline were rewarded for their quicker hands and feet with a well-taken score out to the right of the posts from Alex Orr and were perhaps unlucky that the referee pulled them back for a forward pass when the line beckoned late on.

Newly-demoted Harrogate’s prospects against newly-promoted Billingham looked good on paper but, despite an eventual winning score of 35-21, Billingham competed strongly and were 16-8 ahead at the break.

Harrogate’s powerful pack took control and a 15-metre driving maul led to Tim Heaton diving over.

Despite being down to 14 men, Pete Evans kicked the first of three first-half penalties. A strong right-wing run from Will Turnbull was then well supported by Andy Evans whose try gave Billingham their half-time lead.

A fired-up Harrogate side attacked from the restart to stretch the Billingham defence and Arnie Ellison broke clear to score in the right corner.

A try from Harrogate’s new skipper, Jimmy Browne, restored the home lead and controlled forward pressure followed from which Browne scored his second try, converted by Irvine.

Debutant centre, Pete Wackett, scored two well-taken tries but Billingham continued to battle spiritedly and at least gained a late consolation try.