Harrogate 20 - Leicester Lions 25

In a tough game where the Lions had to defend for long periods, 5 points on the road is a great result.

The typical grey North Yorkshire sky echoed the expectation of rain but thankfully the afternoon stayed dry. The already heavy pitch would have become a mud bath with even a shower.

Lions started the stronger of the two teams and got first points on the board through an early Boden penalty kick after an infringement at the Leicester dominant scrum.

This pressure continued with the defence holding strong and lead to the first try by Jack Gibbons, who this week found himself at the back of a successful driving maul. The blustery conditions made kicking difficult and the conversion was missed.

The Lions confidence of strength seemed to get the better of them when the forwards contested a Harrogate ruck giving away a penalty in front of the posts. Harrogate kicker, Rowntree made no mistakes taking the three points.

The home team seemed to up their intensity at this point, and from the kick off, some strong play from Harrogate lead to their backs moving the ball wide, darting through a stretched Lions defence and scoring their first try. Rowntree added the extras giving Harrogate the lead, 10-8.

Lions responded well and play continued in the home sides half. Pressure eventually paid off when Tom Morris picked from short distance managing to stretch and reach the try line. Lions lead 10-13.

Unfortunately things got a bit tight and while defending, new boy Ben Buxton was dismissed from the field with a yellow card following a tackle which was deemed to be dangerous by the referee. With just two minutes until halftime Harrogate were looking to take advantage of the extra man. Leicester Lions try line was bombarded with ferocious attacking play. All credit to the 14 men on the field who defended outstandingly not allowing the ball to cross the line.

Lions went in at the break 10-13 up and happy with some solid defence.

After half time the energy was still with the Lions and soon led to a superb try from Lithuanian international Luke Veebel. Great vision from Adam Greendale allowed him to throw a large miss pass, leaving Veebel space to power over the line. Boden added the extras.

The next 20 minutes was alternating possession between the sides. On 55 minutes it was Parsons for Harrogate who managed to dart over in the corner clawing the score back to 15-20.

Play was starting to look like the Lions were applying some real dominance on the game, defending very well against Harrogate's attacking backs. This finally showed when Veebel finished off some good attaching play from the Lions to cross the white wash for his second try of the day. 65 minutes gone and a strong 15-25 lead to the visitors.

It was clear that the heavy pitch was taking its toll on both sets of forwards as the game approached the last 5 minutes. In an attempt to put some dominance in defence, Buxton's tackle attempt was once again deemed dangerous by the referee and he was dismissed with a second yellow card.

Harrogate, again, sped up play in an effort to take advantage of the extra man and it eventually paid off. A bobbling ball was hacked on by a Harrogate player in the Lions 22 and neatly collected and dotted down by the home side. The conversion was missed. 20-25 to the lions.

After the try it felt like the time had elapsed but the referee still had one minute to play on his watch. The home side gathered possession from the kick off and attacked with vigour. To the relief of the Lions, solid defending eventually led to a knock on and the team could celebrate their first win on the road.

This week Lions are back at home and host Birmingham & Solihull for the last game before Christmas and the first of the reversed fixtures