Old Otliensians 30 Harrogate Pythons 13

THE Chaffers Field pitch survived Friday night’s frost and enabled both sides the chance to play a Yorkshire Three match after seven weeks of inactivity.

Otliensians took a while to find their feet and were forced to defend resolutely in the opening 20 minutes.

Fortunately, they only conceded one try when the Pythons spun the ball along the line for their winger to score.

Whenever ‘Ensians made territory, the ball was spilled, and this enabled Harrogate to kick deep into the opposition half.

There were lots of mistakes and there was a sense of rustiness for both sides, each giving the other chances to get out of trouble.

A Harrogate penalty gave the visitors an 8-0 lead after half an hour. A yellow card for their hooker enabled the home side to exert pressure.

Kristian Keinhorst kicked a penalty to bring the score back to 8-3, and Otliensians went ahead a few minutes later.

A five-metre scrum gave ‘Ensians their first attacking position and Luke Cowdell took the chance to score wide out.

A good Keinhorst conversion put the hosts 10-8 up and just before half-time a kick ahead from the same player led to a try in the corner for young winger George Duncan to stretch the advantage to 15-8.

Pythons opened the second half on the attack, but ‘Ensians secured possession and moved the ball from under their own posts.

Cowdell ran hard, broke tackles and found centre Ollie Eaves with an inside pass for a lovely length-of-the-field try.

Jim Dyson, Greg Jones and Rob Arbuckle made some good ground and Pythons were now on the back foot.

Arbuckle was sent to the sin bin, but ‘Gate conceded a penalty and Keinhorst made no mistake to increase the lead to 23-8.

A Harrogate 22 drop out saw their left wing gather on the full and it needed a good tackle from Will Cooper to halt the threat.

However, an infringement by the home side prompted the referee to award a penalty try to Pythons, but with the conversion surprisingly missed, 23-13 looked the likely outcome.

A late try by Josh Howarth, converted by Keinhorst changed things and a 30-13 win for ‘Ensians restored the status quo for this season’s derby contests between the two sides. It was a good team effort and victory was sweet.