Harrogate Pythons RUFC showed Wensleydale RUFC ‘too much respect’, says frustrated John Liley
John Liley felt that his Harrogate Pythons RUFC players showed Wensleydale “too much respect” during Saturday’s Yorkshire Two clash at the Jim Saynor Ground.
The Starbeck-based outfit fought back from 12-0 down to take a narrow lead, only to then ship two more tries before half-time in a game they eventually went on to lose by a 38-29 score-line.
And, not for the first time this season, coach Liley was left to wonder what might have been.
“We showed too much respect to Wensleydale,” he said. “Having conceded two early tries, we responded positively to eventually lead 15-12, and that was the point where we should have taken a stronger hold on the game.
“For all the good things we did in the match, we also made too many mistakes and provided Wensleydale with too much possession due to our lack of control.
“The positive we can take despite a disappointing scoreline was that we continued to push until the very end to record a losing bonus point.
“But, if we had a more ruthless approach, we wouldn't have finished second best in our last two league fixtures.”
A lacklustre start by the Pythons enabled their visitors to run in a couple of tries during the opening 10 minutes before Andrew Mackay dived through a gap to touchdown from close range to reduce the deficit.
Ben Pryor added the conversion to make it 12-7, then some good attacking play by Nick Bell provided Jed Carr with the opportunity to float a long pass out to Rufus Palfreman, who finished in the corner.
A Pryor penalty goal then edged the hosts into the lead, only for Wensleydale to respond soon afterwards with their third try of the afternoon.
Moments later, they launched a similar attack down the opposite side of the field and crossed again to seize a 24-15 advantage, which they held until the interval.
Trailing at the break, ‘Gate knew that they needed to start the second period well. But, although they did just that, they failed to convert some decent play into points and then went on to concede two more tries as Wensleydale took full control of proceedings.
Undeterred, the Pythons went on to finish the match strongly, forcing their visitors to give away a host of penalties.
Some great work by Freddie Abrahams and Arron Woods took play into the away 22, from where Harry Jackson offloaded to Pryor, who burrowed his way over the whitewash before converting himself for 38-22.
Then, after Carr kicked a penalty deep into ‘Dale territory, Marcus Fotherby secured the resulting line-out to set up a drive for the line, with the charging Jordan Payne eventually crashing over next to the posts.
Pryor again booted over the extras to secure a losing bonus point, but that was as good as it was to get for the Pythons.