Harrogate Pythons visited a windy and cold Old Rishworthian hoping to reverse previous weeks’ results but found a totally re vitalised Rishworth squad that battled against the elements to a deserved 31-0 victory. The Pythons played with the wind in the first half with both sides playing the phases well. Marcus Fotherby and George Booth carried well for The Pythons with Andrew MacKay distributing the ball well in the wind. A mistake by the home full back gives The Pythons a scrum on the home 22. Tabewalu picks up at 8 and drives for the line setting up Eddy Wilkinson who is held up agonisingly short. Jed Carr used the wind well gaining good ground with Rufus Palfreman, on debut, taking good line out ball however, The Home defence held firm in their 22. A line out 5m out, Rish catch and drive touching down in the corner, 5-0 half time.
Rish played the conditions well in the second half scoring an un answered 26 points leaving the final score 31-0. The Pythons league position remains at 7th with Wensleydale coming to The Jim Saynor Ground on the 14th for the last game of the year. After the game Coach MacKay said,” A bad day at the office, although most defeats this season had a number of positives, little could be taken from this one. Some individuals put a decent shift in but far too many did not. Although there were glimpses of promise inconsistencies in handling and tackling let us down. We must be more hungry for the challenge and a testing fixture against Wensleydale on Saturday will see how we respond to our final fixture before the Christmas break”
