Jake Brady finds plenty of positives despite seeing Harrogate RUFC lose by a point at Heath RUFC
Aces director of rugby far from unhappy with his side’s performance during 34-33 defeat on the road
Jake Brady felt that there was plenty right with Harrogate RUFC’s display at Heath RUFC on Saturday, despite seeing his side suffer a narrow defeat.
Although they led for long periods, the Aces eventually finished up on the wrong end of a 34-33 score-line following what was another closely-fought National Two North encounter.
And while he said that he thinks his players should have taken all five points on Saturday afternoon, the club’s director of rugby insisted that he was able to draw a number of positives from their performance.
“Saturday was a really good contest,” Brady told the Harrogate Advertiser. “It was very close, and ultimately we have just come out on the wrong side of the result.
“But, the performance was decent, and we did a lot of things well. The big thing for me is that we played better than we did last week, and that is essentially what you want as a coach, to see clear progression and improvement from your team.
“Don’t get me wrong, there is still plenty to go at. There is loads to work on and improve still, and if we can do that, then we will end up coming out on top in really tight games like this one.
“You always want to win, and we go into every game trying to do that, but with the two bonus points this week, and the three we took from the draw with Huddersfield last time out, that’s five points we’ve got from a possible 10.
“That return is another positive, so I can’t say that I am too unhappy.”
Early tries from Greg Minikin and Ben Richardson, plus a Jack Mallinson conversion saw Harrogate take a 12-0 lead inside the opening eight minutes.
Thomas Clough and Elliott Spiers then went over for Heath, with Chris Johnson adding the extras to edge the hosts ahead.
Fly-half Mallinson then touched down and converted himself, before Amrit Sharma crossed and Mallinson again did the business with the boot to make it 26-14.
Zac Baker’s try and Johnson’s conversion just before the interval narrowed the gap, and Johnson then booted over a penalty just after the resumption for 26-24.
Harvey Keighley-Payne then added Heath’s fourth try, which was converted by Johnson, shortly before he added a penalty to stretch the home advantage to 34-26.
Sharma’s second touchdown of the afternoon, converted by Mallinson just before the hour mark, then brought ‘Gate back to within a point.
But, despite the Aces applying a huge amount of pressure during the final quarter of the game, another score was not forthcoming and Heath managed to hold out.
“We started well and got two tries early on to go 12-0 up,” Brady added. “They came from a couple of things that we had worked on in the week, so that was obviously pleasing.
“Heath then came back into it, but we were still leading at half-time, however they got the rub of the green in the second half and took that narrow lead into the last 20 minutes.
“We then put them under loads of pressure inside their half, but we just couldn’t quite turn that into points.
“We had enough time and opportunities to get over the line, but we didn’t manage to execute.”
This Saturday, Harrogate entertain Fylde at Rudding Lane (2pm).