Harrogate RUFC Ladies able to take positives from third defeat of the season

But, the Rudding Lane outfit produced another performance which their management and coaching team were able to take plenty of positives from, scoring a brace of tries in each half of Sunday’s game.

"Despite a disappointing final result, we continue to demonstrate talent and teamwork,” reflected Helena Landau, who manages Harrogate’s 1st XI alongside Jessica Deacy.

"We kept Kenilworth on their toes throughout and this hard-fought match was a nail-biter until the end.

"We continued to build upon our strengths and progress made in previous matches under coaches Neil Davies and Adam Brooke-Smith.”

The first half saw Georgina Youlden and Louise Dawson touch down for ‘Gate, these scores converted by Dawson and Alyssia Hine respectively. Dawson’s try was the pick of the bunch on the day as she ran in from the halfway line, taking the score-line to 22-14 at the interval.

The introduction of Maisie Barnett, Alex Clark, Harriet Braithwaite and Jenny Berthelemy for the second half of the match revitalised the home side, with Harrogate benefiting from a number of turnovers and adding two more tries to keep themselves in contention.

From a scrum, Savannah Leroux’s bright run and pass to Dawson resulted in a third score of the match for the Aces, then Youlden also crossed for the second time with Dawson adding the conversion.

Defeat leaves ‘Gate second-from-bottom of the Women’s Championship North One standings after three matches.

This weekend, Harrogate’s 1st XV entertain Barnsley, while their 2nds play host to Hull Ionians.