Yorkshire Division Three: Aireborough 28 Harrogate Pythons 18

AIREBOROUGH continued their winning start to the season as they moved to the top of Yorkshire Division Three with another hard-fought victory at Nunroyd Park.

Aireborough made hard work of the first half against a spirited Pythons team and the game could, and probably should, have been over by half-time.

Stu Wilson set the tone early on with a blistering line break but was high tackled by the last defender which, on another day, may have resulted in a sin-binning or a penalty try.

Aireborough took the lead shortly after through Oscar Edwards and then proceeded to lay siege to the Harrogate line for the majority of the first half but were unable to add to their initial score.

Aireborough were made to pay for their profligacy with Harrogate converting a penalty kick and, with Aire reduced to 14 men following the sin-binning of Chris Chapman for a tip tackle with five minutes to half time, scoring an unconverted try to lead 8-5 at the interval.

Aire started the second half brightly. Edwards scored his second try of the afternoon following a breakaway which was successfully converted by Ryan Sample to give his side a 12-8 lead.

Harrogate then came back into the game, with the Pythons scoring two unconverted tries in a ten minute period, sandwiching a Sample penalty, as Aire trailed 18-15 entering the last quarter.

Aire needed to raise their game and it was scrum half Tom Holdsworth who came to the rescue. He grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck with tactical kicking and sound decision making.

Debutant James Patterson crossed for a well-worked try and Holdsworth went over for a try himself following a rolling maul as Aire snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

Sample was unable to convert either try but did slot a penalty with the last kick of the game to deny Harrogate a losing bonus point.

Aireborough travel to local rivals Old Otliensians this Saturday, looking to extend their unbeaten start to the season.