Harrogate Pythons 16 Old Otliensians 10

THE warm weather, a wide pitch and perfect playing conditions seemed suited to Otliensians' open style of play, but things didn't work out that way.

The Otley side had a few players missing and lost Luke Cowdell with a tweaked hamstring in the warm-up.

Despite playing up the slope, Pythons had the better of the early exchanges and only two great tackles from Josh Howarth prevented them from taking the lead.

George Duncan, who Otliensians' man of the match on his debut, broke through before kicking ahead into the home team’s 22 but the attack was thwarted.

Pythons continued to be on top and ultimately scored a penalty goal after 32 minutes to take the lead.

This fired up the visitors responded with a spell of pressure. Olly Eaves broke through but the final pass went astray, and then following a fine move involving forwards and backs, Howarth went over for a try that was converted by Kristian Keinhorst.

A hard run by Rob Arbuckle was stopped by a last-ditch tackle as Otliensians went near to scoring again but the home defence held firm.

Pythons, playing with the advantage of the slope in the second half, spent much of the first 15 minutes in the visitors' 22, but excellent defence held them out. However Pythons scored a penalty goal after 52 minutes to reduced the deficit to a single point.

Again Otliensians fought back working their way up the field and were rewarded when Kristian Keinhorst scored another penalty.

For the rest of the match the visitors were up against it. The Pythons knew how to use the slight slope and attacked continually with some good open moves.

Otliensians suffered a big setback when hooker John Offer had to leave the field through injury. With no recognised replacement they lost the ball on their own put in on at least two occasions which meant they were unable to relieve the pressure that was building.

It was not surprising when the stout defence cracked with Pythons scoring a converted try after 73 minutes and a penalty five minutes to secure victory.