Harrogate RUFC record bounce-back win over Blaydon RFC, but must continue to strive for more, insists Dan Scarbrough

Tom Steene dives over the try-line during Harrogate RUFC's North One East success over Blaydon at Rudding Lane. Picture: Richard Bown

Dan Scarbrough was pleased to see Harrogate RUFC bounce straight back from their first defeat of the season with a comfortable home win over Blaydon, but insists that his players must keep striving for more.

Having kicked-off 2023/24 with a seven-match unbeaten run which included six victories, the North One East leaders were turned over by fellow high-flyers York in their previous outing.

The Aces would however get back on track at the first attempt, earning a bonus point before half-time as they ran in four tries on their way to a 26-12 success on Saturday afternoon.

And while former England international Scarbrough felt that 'Gate were "superb for 25 minutes", he is still looking for greater consistency in terms of their overall level of performance.

"A bonus-point win always makes for a good day at the office, you can't really ask for much more," Harrogate's head coach reflected.

"Things look like they are really starting to click. I think that we are seeing progress week-on-week and we were superb for 25 minutes against Blaydon.

"We asked the players for a big start. Everything we've been doing in the week was working towards that and we scored two quick tries and got ahead in the game pretty quickly.

"We then sat back a little bit and let them come back at us, which is something we've got into a habit of doing this season. That yo-yoing is a big development point for us. The boys are quite good at adapting to different situations within games, but we need to learn that if something is working, then we have to keep doing it.

"In the end, we came away with the four tries and a good result, but there wasn't a huge amount of celebrating by the players at the end of the game. And that, for me, is quite a good indication that they know that there is still more still to come and plenty of work to be done."

Tries from fly-half Olly Toomey, prop Jacob Percival and winger Orisi Katalau – two of which were converted by Rory Macnab – saw Harrogate surge into a 19-0 lead at Rudding Lane before John Clarkson went over for Blaydon.

A Tom Steene touchdown, converted by Macnab, made it 26-5 at the break, with the visitors going on to grab the only score of what was a less eventful second period through Ethan Clarke, narrowing the gap slightly.

Victory keeps ‘Gate two points clear at the summit. This Saturday, they visit second-from-bottom Cleckheaton.