Harrogate Pythons RUFC punished for 'own errors' during narrow loss to Wath Upon Dearne RUFC

The Starbeck-based outfit began their second season in Yorkshire One with a run of four straight victories, but have struggled in recent weeks and were edged out by Wath Upon Dearne at the weekend.

Having been soundly-beaten in their three previous matches while still playing some decent rugby, the Pythons were very much in Saturday’s contest, eventually losing out by a narrow 21-19 margin.

And forwards coach Tom Baxter doesn’t feel that his side are too far away from where they need to be based on their latest display.

“This is a fantastic group to work with and we are growing each time we come together,” he said.

"Going into Saturday’s game, we knew Wath would bring a lot of physicality, so early on, we set about turning this narrative on its head – particularly in defence, where we were led by our back row of Sam Rowntree, Will Mines and Jack Thompson-Hall.

“Our line-out defence was incredibly impressive and saw us disrupting ball and nullify Wath’s driving maul.

"We also played a lot of fast, attacking rugby and looked dangerous from everywhere. But, as a group, we have to learn how to utilise this ability in the right areas of the pitch and not be too eager.

"Ultimately, Wath were able to capitalise on our own errors.”

An early spell of Wath pressure ended just after the 10-minute mark and the Pythons then took the lead when a clearance kick was claimed by Saul Adshead. The ‘Gate full-back released Jackson Hobson, who found Ollie Ward out wide to round his man and score in the corner.

There were no more points registered before the interval, though it took the visitors just two minutes of the second period to hit back.

The ball was knocked-on by a home player under his own posts, and from the resulting scrum, the Wath number nine darted over the whitewash.

Undeterred, the Pythons went straight back on the offensive and despite being held up over the try-line several times, eventually reclaimed the lead when fly-half Max Sharp took a quick tap-penalty and found Hobson, who stepped several tacklers to score by the posts.

Ward added the extras for a 12-7 advantage after an hour of play, but two tries in the space of five minutes then saw Wath go 21-12 up.

From the last play, the Pythons secured a losing bonus point following a strong surge by Hugh Tatlow that set up Milnes to cross for a score which was converted by Ward.