Harrogate Pythons were on the road again as round 10 took them to Hullensians. Winning 12-13 at half time The Pythons conceded 33 points in the second half to lose 45-13.
Both sides looked even as each won their own set piece with play between the 10m lines for the first 10 minutes of the game. The home side were the first to score with a well worked move wide for the winger to score in the corner, 7-0. The Pythons began to put the pressure back onto Ensians with some powerful runs from Luke Korba and Sam Rowntree. Max Sharp drills a penalty to the 5m line, Hugh Tatlow secures the line out and George Booth begins the phases supported by Jordan Payne and Rowntree. A quick ball to Jack Whiting who drives over the line 7-5 after 20 mins.
A superb turn over from Will Milnes wins the Pythons possession on the home 22m line. Frustration in the home defence gives Ben Pryor a shot at goal, 7-8 on 25 mins. Back to play between the 10m lines with the sides evenly matched. A careless off side and the home side put the penalty on the Pythons 5m line. A move straight from the training field and the home hooker finds space on the narrow side to score, 12-8.
Pressure from the kick off puts the home side under pressure and some great anticipation sees Henry Hazlem intercept a long pass to race in from the 22m line to score in the corner, 12-13 half time.
A series off sharp off loads close to the breakdown appeared to catch the away team off guard as the second half progressed. 5 unanswered tries, 33 points led to the final score 45-13. However, The Pythons did challenge the home line on a number of occasions with Milnes held up over the line.
After the game Coach MacKay said, “Despite several changes due to injury and unavailability The Pythons went into the match full of confidence having enjoyed a bonus point win from the previous week.
The first half saw Pythons leading without really performing to any level, both sides struggling for any real cohesion. The second half was entirely different with a dominant performance from Hullensians. When you make the number of mistakes that we did the opposition are going to take advantage and that’s exactly what happened. We lacked the ability to maintain possession combined with ineffective defence enabled Hullensians to seize the initiative. At some stage you have an off day and this was definitely ours. We move on and focus on the next fixture. The point to remember is we have already achieved more wins and points than the previous season so we’ll continue to build and see where the season takes us.”
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