Leicester Lions 26 Harrogate 20

It was Joe Collingham for the Lions who took early advantage to open the scoring with a well worked try from the front of an attacking line-out. He powered through some non-existent tackling and Jon Williams’s touchline conversion put the Lions 7 points ahead. Harrogate then put some attacking moves together following a number of forward drives. The ball was released, moved along the line and smart handling and poor defence led to Lewis Minikin darting through for a fine try which he converted.

This proved to be Harrogate’s only score of the half. Scrum half, Adam Shaw tidied up loose ball to create another home attack, then Harrogate went offside and Williams kicked the penalty to restore their lead. A well worked Shaw break then sparked off another Leicester attack seeing Benjamin halted just short of the line. Flanker Johnny Murdoch was in support to score a converted try in the right corner. Good scrummaging by both sides was frustrated by some mystifying refereeing decisions but Harrogate were mounting sporadic attacks before being turned over and then penalised for “hands in” and Williams’s penalty made it 20-7 at the break.

Harrogate had won the second half of every game this season and poor discipline by Lions allowed Harrogate to tighten things up at the base and a strong midfield break set up another Harrogate try. The move seemed to be halted by the Lions scramble defence, but Callum Irvine was in support to score and Minikin converted from the touchline.

A huge line kick by Lions full back Nick Taylor led to a home line-out in the 22, but Harrogate stole the ball and launched a counter attack. However minutes later Harrogate were penalised and Williams landed another well taken penalty. Almost immediately, it was Leicester who went offside and Minikin’s kick brought the score to 23-17 with 5 minutes to play.

A further exchange of penalties led to the final score and a win for the Lions, getting the season back on track for the Leicester based team.

Report by Samuel Benjamin