Harrogate RUFC 'avenge' early-season loss to Penrith RUFC with 14-try demolition job
Ruthless Harrogate RUFC ran in 14 tries against injury-hit Penrith as they successfully “avenged” their surprise early-season defeat to the Cumbrians.
The Aces produced an utterly dominant performance at Rudding Lane on Saturday afternoon, racing into a 43-0 half-time lead before eventually going on to win the game 88-7.
Jake Brady’s men remain six points behind leaders Heath in the North One East standings despite their fifth consecutive bonus-point victory, and the size of that gap is partly down to September’s narrow reverse up in Penrith.
Needless to say, Gate’s director of rugby was pleased to see his players go some way to atoning for that disappointment at the weekend.
“In the second game of the campaign we were handed a defeat by Penrith,” Brady said.
“The return fixture was immediately marked on the calendar as a game we would need to be at our best in, and an opportunity to avenge that defeat. We succeeded with that in dominant fashion.
“This is our biggest margin of victory of the season. We were clinical and did what we needed to.
“I am pleased with the performance and can now look immediately to a big game away at Blaydon before Christmas.”
Harrogate were utterly relentless throughout Saturday’s contest, and the tone was set as early as the third minute when full-back Kristan Dobson crossed to hand his side an early lead.
Penrith managed to hold out until the quarter-of-an-hour mark before their defence was breached a second time, prolific winger Amrit Sharma the man to score on this occasion.
Ten minutes later, Dobson went over again, and the floodgates then opened, with winger Conor Miller and Sharma adding tries in quick succession as the bonus point was secured.
‘Gate were not finished there and both Sharma and Dobson were able to complete their hat-tricks before half-time.
There was more of the same after the interval, with Sharma crossing once again and Dobson adding two more to his personal tally to make it 62-0.
Penrith did manage a consolation try on 55 minutes as fly-half Harley Johnson touched down for Fraser Nicholson to convert.
That was however as good as it was to get for the visitors, and normal service was soon resumed as Dobson bagged his sixth try of the afternoon.
A quickfire brace from lock Will Pritchard saw the ‘Gate forwards eventually get in on the try-scoring action, before centre Junior Nuu rounded things off late on.
Dobson’s nine conversions meant that he finished the game with an individual points total of 48.
Next up for Harrogate this Saturday is a tricky-looking trip to fifth-placed Blaydon, a team who are traditionally very strong at home on their artificial pitch.