Jake Brady urges Harrogate RUFC to start 'making life easier' for themselves following dramatic win over Kendal RUFC

Just as was the case when they edged out Ilkley earlier this month, the Aces went into the final play of the game needing to score a try in order to turn a narrow deficit into a victory.

And, although they did manage to deliver again under huge pressure and make it over the whitewash to secure a 22-20 success at a wet and muddy Rudding Lane, 'Gate's director of rugby conceded that his side cannot keep on taking it right down to the wire.

"We have shown great self-belief and determination to win on Saturday and it's not the first time we have headed into the last play of the game needing to score a try," Brady told the Harrogate Advertiser.

"It is satisfying to win in that fashion and certainly exciting, but the challenge for us now is to start making it more comfortable for ourselves by applying ourselves better. We need to be making life easier for ourselves.

"We are leaving ourselves too much to do. On Saturday, Kendal played the conditions much better than we did in the first half. We needed to be smarter and to adapt more quickly, which are things that we are capable of doing with the quality in our squad.

"They got into the lead and then kicked a number of penalties and overturning a nine-point deficit in the kind of conditions we were playing in on Saturday was never going to be easy.

"Obviously I am happy that we have managed to come away with the five points in the end, but there is still a lot work for us to do on our game."

Having fallen behind early on to an Evan Moir penalty, Harrogate hit back in the 11th minute when a trademark driving maul was finished off by hooker Steve Maycock.

Andy Rogers’ try saw Kendal move back in front, and two more Moir penalties stretched the away advantage to 14-5 by half-time.

Moir was at it again four minutes into the second period, though Conor Miller crossed soon afterwards to narrow the deficit.

Captain Sam Brady’s touchdown, converted by Kristan Dobson, then levelled the scores, only for Moir to land another three-pointer to put the visitors 20-17 ahead.

But, in the very last minute, Sam Brady went over once again to earn his team a dramatic late success – and a four-try bonus point.

"I think we deserved to win the game on the balance of play,” Jake Brady added.

"I appreciate that Kendal will probably be devastated to lose the game so late on and in that fashion, but as I always say, you usually get what you deserve in rugby.

"I do think that Kendal adapted to the conditions better than we did in the first half, however I feel that we tried to play the more positive rugby.

"They kicked a lot of penalties and only scored one try. We scored four, and if we’d had a better day off the kicking tee, then we’d have won by a clearer margin.”

Victory elevates Harrogate to second place in the North One East standings, where they remain seven points behind unbeaten league leaders Heath.

Next up for the Aces is a trip to West Yorkshire this Saturday to take on third-from-bottom Sandal.