Blaydon 8, Harrogate 12
🔴⚫️Match Report 🔴⚫️
Saturday 7th December 2019
BLAYDON 8 – 12 HARROGATE
After defending solidly for the first 20 minutes and shipping only one converted try, Blaydon then got on the offensive reducing the arrears with an unconverted try and a penalty just before the break, giving them a narrow lead at half time.
The second half began in similar fashion to the first period with the visitors on the offensive in the early stages but gradually Blaydon upped a gear and by the 6th minute of injury time they still held their 1 point advantage. In the final 2 minutes however, things went horribly wrong with the game reduced to uncontested scrums, Blaydon won a line out on half way, and instead of retaining possession and working the clock down they inexplicably kicked ahead, lost possession, and thereafter the rest is history. The opposition gathered the ball, ran across field, Blaydon gave away a penalty and then immediately a second one following interference with the first one, and Harrogate ran through a disorganised Blaydon defence to score the winning try with the last move of the game. As stated previously Harrogate dominated early exchanges, Blaydon suffered a yellow card when Harry Borthwick got his marching orders, and in the 11th minute prop Connor Ward finished off a catch and drive for Steven Fox to add the extras.
Midway through the half, Blaydon came more into the game and flyhalf Ryan Foreman threaded through a narrow gap to reduce the arrears to only 2 points. Blaydon continued to attack and a forward misdemeanour saw the same player add a simple 3 points in front of the posts. Half time arrived and afterwards we saw the two sides both failing to take chances and wrong decisions cost each team chances to improve their scoreline until the game reached the eventful final minutes when Blaydon contrived to lose a game seemingly well within their control.
Next week we visit Carlisle who have previously beaten Harrogate and will no doubt be looking for another top scalp.
Jim Huxley
