Roundhegians RUFC 3rd XV 21 – Harrogate Pythons RUFC 2nd XV 43
The Pirates travelled to Roundhegians with a healthy squad despite several late dropouts due to illness. Will Clough, making a welcome return after long term injury got proceedings underway with a long kick off to give the Pirates early territory. The Pirates soon took control with a powerful scrum and some strong carries from Jack Hall and Steve Smith. Hegians were turnover in their 22 and Alex Nichols found Eddy Wilkinson who charged for the posts and offloaded to Will Cudworth to open the scoring. Cloughie added the conversion. 0-7 10 mins. From a penalty, Cloughie found touch on the Hegians 5m line, the lineout was won and Cudworth charged over in midfield. Again Cloughie converted. 0-14 18 mins. From another attacking lineout Dan Sidwell took clean ball and this time Sandy Dunlop drove through to score. Extras again added by Cloughie. 0-21 26 mins.
As the Pirates pushed for another, Nathan Wake was stopped on the line and Matt Audsley’s scoring pass was intercepted by Hegians speedy full back who went the length of the field to score. 7-21 30 mins. From the restart Hegians broke out again but this time were stopped by Owen Carter’s tackle. An Hegians move broke down on the Pirates 22 and a strong carry from Dunlop saw the ball go wide through several hands to Nathan Kemeny who sped away to score in the corner. 7-26 35 mins. Next it was Nichols turn to intercept and he raced away only to be stopped by the hamstring sniper. Another great take by Sidwell in the lineout saw Smith this time drive over for another try. The conversion was missed to leave the half time score Roundhegians 7 Pirates 31.
The 2nd half was slow to get started with both teams cancelling each other out until the Hegians backs made a break but Sam Beagrie got back to make the tackle under the posts. The referee however awarded a penalty and the Hegians scrum half took a quick tap to score under the posts. 14-31 47 mins. Worse was to follow for the Pirates as Hegians again intercepted and raced away to score under the posts. 21-31 60 mins. The Pirates responded well giving Louis Dabhi-Green his first run making 50 metres before been stopped by some strong defence. Hegians then tried to run out of defence but their winger was cut in two by a fine tackle from Dabhi-Green. A great lineout steal from Marcus Fotherby saw the ball quickly transferred to the opposite side of the field for Dabhi-Green to crash over in the corner. 21-36 75 mins. The restart was taken by Fothers who scattered the Hegians defenders before quick ball from Steve Kirkpatrick found Cloughie in space to jink over. Jordan Payne casually dropped kicked the conversion to make the final score Roundhegians 21 Pirates 43.
This was another solid performance from the Pirates with man of the match awarded to Jack Hall for a tireless display.
