HULL RUFC

Hull RUFC-23 Harrogate RFC-12

Hull comfortably defeated Harrogate at the Ferens Ground on Saturday in a heated encounter which saw no fewer than five yellow cards.

Ten minutes into the match, Guy Martinson collected a Harrogate clearance ten metres inside the Hull half and embarked on a hazy 40m run past three players where he had a golden opportunity to pass out wide to an unmarked Tevita Vaikona 20m out. He carried on and was judged to have been illegally tackled which allowed James Cameron to open the scoring with a straightforward penalty.

As Hull threatened to open the scoring from several recycled balls 30m out, Harrogate began to lose their cool which culminated in yellow cards for Dan Harland and Darren Wigg after altercations in the ruck which the ref had to deal with.

Hull still maintained their pressure with 14 men and when another move into Harrogates half ended in a foul James Cameron doubled the lead on the half hour mark.

But five minutes later it was Harrogate who got the opening try when a close range lineout was quickly moved inside for Mike Aspinall who ran between two onrushing Hull players to score between the posts and converted to give Harrogate the lead.

But Hull rallied to end the half in front after a lineout 15m out was slowly driven to the try line and Rob Devonshire touched down with a minute of normal time remaining. Cameron made the conversion to lead 13-7 at the break.

The second half began with more controversy when Harrogates Harry Hannan was booked for a horrendous high tackle on a Hull player only ten metres from the try line. 15 minutes later Hull increased their lead after more excellent work from the pack enabled Chris Murphy to push 20m up the right after a lengthy spell of possession to score Hull’s second try.

With 13 minutes left, Devonshire got his second of the day from another close range lineout drive which was a carbon copy of the first Hull try even though Cameron missed the conversion. During this time Hull’s Sione Onesi and Matt Davies were also sin-binned for technical fouls although both seemed reactionary as opposed to measured decisions.

Harrogate substitute Aaron Yorke reduced the deficit with seven minutes remaining after a brilliant 40m run from winger Steve Parsons beat three players on the flank and ended five metres from the line where Yorke followed up well and forced the ball over. The conversion was then missed as Hull wrapped up their eighth consecutive league win.

Man of the match Chris Murphy said after the game: ‘We started well and created a lot of opportunities but as the half went on we were disappointed not to take those chances. On the whole though we were delighted to get another win.’

‘It was great to have Onesi and Danny Smith playing today. Unfortunately the circumstances weren’t great with Neil Spence and Ben Dorrington missing out through late injury. Ben was definitely in line for his first start so that was a shame but the strength in depth is evident when we have the likes of Danny coming in.’

‘The Yellow cards did break the game up a lot and at times I don’t know if the ref was able to keep control. There were a few off the ball incidents as well that could have been dealt with by not using cards.’