Harrogate RUFC's relegation from National Two North down in part to lack of experience

The Aces’ relegation from English rugby’s fourth tier had been on the cards for a couple of weeks but was confirmed on Saturday following a 24-12 home defeat to Tynedale.

That loss was the Rudding Lane outfit’s 18th in 23 outings this term and leaves them 20 points adrift of safety with just three fixtures remaining.

Director of rugby Wood has overseen a year of transition since taking over from predecessor Dave Doherty last summer, with his 1st XV bearing little resemblance to the 2021/22 season’s group.

He has blooded a number of young prospects over the course of a tough campaign, and insists that he’s pleased with the individual and collective progress his inexperienced team has made since the turn of the year.

But the ‘Gate chief is of the opinion that the absence of sufficient national league nous and knowhow at “key moments” has proved costly on numerous occasions.

“I think it [relegation] has been inevitable since we lost to Preston a couple of weeks ago, however it’s still obviously very disappointing,” Wood told the Harrogate Advertiser.

“Obviously it’s not very nice to go down, but ultimately we had to build a new squad at the start of the season and it did take us a long time to gel.

“It’s only really the second half of the season where I think things have started to come together and we have been competitive in pretty much every single game in recent months.

“It’s a young group we have here and that lack of experience has been a big factor, without question. You look at Huddersfield, for example, and they’ve got some good players, but they are a team full of lads who are 28, 29 or 30, who have numerous seasons under their belts at this level, whereas a lot of our lads had never played National Two rugby until this year.

“And that’s showed when it has come to making the right decisions at the right time in a lot of key moments in games.”

Harrogate headed into Saturday’s clash with Tynedale knowing that they had to win to keep their slim survival hopes alive while also hoping that their nearest rivals - third-from Preston Grasshoppers – finished empty-handed at Hull Ionians.

Trailing 7-0 at the interval, second-half tries from Rupert Scrase and Ben Raubitschek kept the Aces in the contest, but they were ultimately not ruthless enough when scoring opportunities came their way.

“The lads were disappointed after the game but I don’t think it had quite sunk in that we were down,” Wood added.

“To be honest, I think we were more bothered about the outcome and the fact that we had managed to lose the match.

“It was a tough pill to swallow because we played well enough to have won it. I think we were the better team for large periods, but once again we just weren’t clinical enough when it mattered.

"I thought that Tynedale were absolutely outstanding when we played them at their place, even though the score-line was pretty close. But they don’t travel well and so Saturday was a game that we felt we could win – and in the end I think we probably should have.”

Meanwhile, over in East Yorkshire, the Grasshoppers were beaten 33-29 by Ionians, but the two losing bonus points which they secured meant that ‘Gate would still have needed a miracle even if they had managed to turn Tynedale over.

Next up for Wood and his men is a home showdown with the aforementioned Ionians, 3pm kick-off this Saturday.