Harrogate Pythons RUFC head coach Dan Bird 'proud' of performance despite defeat to top-of-the-table West Leeds RUFC

Harrogate Pythons RUFC try-scorer Sam Rowntree in action during Saturday's defeat at West Leeds. Picture: Submitted

Dan Bird said he was “incredibly proud” of his Harrogate Pythons RUFC players after they pushed Yorkshire One leaders West Leeds all the way on Saturday afternoon.

The Starbeck outfit are still searching for their first win since they were promoted from Yorkshire Two at the end of last season, but gave another good account of themselves against opponents who have made a perfect start to the campaign.

And although his players suffered a fourth defeat in four outings this term following a 37-22 reverse, Pythons head coach Bird was once again able to take plenty of positives from their display.

"I am incredibly proud of our performance,” he said.

"West Leeds is always a difficult place to go and play and we made life incredibly difficult for the league leaders.

"This match was decided by one or two key moments in transition where West Leeds simply took advantage of our errors.

“Our squad is really demonstrating what they are capable of achieving and once we are able to cut down our error count, we are going to find ourselves putting a big score on someone.”

The Pythons began Saturday’s contest brightly, Sam Considine finding space out wide to outpace the West Leeds defence and open the scoring in the corner after eight minutes.

The hosts leveled the scores at 5-5 after a quarter of an hour, adding their second and third tries soon afterwards to open up a 19-5 lead by the 25th minute.

‘Gate came back into the game after the power of Ed Challis and Hugh Tatlow enabled them to crank up the pressure of the league leaders inside their own 22 before Sam Rowntree dived over the whitewash to make it 19-10.

West Leeds would however add another score before half-time, though Will Smith fed Challis to crash over and reduce the deficit once again early in the second period.

Challis’ second try then brought the Pythons right back into the contest at 29-22, however lack of concentration at a line-out allowed one of the home props to barge through for a try, before a late penalty was kicked to round off the scoring.

Bird and his men host Beverley at the Jim Saynor Ground this Saturday.