Harrogate Pythons RUFC suffer narrow defeat on the road at Old Rishworthian RUFC

Back-to-back promotions mean that the Starbeck outfit find themselves playing Yorkshire One rugby for the time in their history this season, and although they have kicked-off 2023/24 with consecutive losses, they have been very much in both matches.

Head coach Dan Bird said he was able to take plenty of positives away from the Pythons’ opening-day reverse at the hands of Leodiensian, and wasn’t too downbeat after Saturday’s clash in Halifax.

“We addressed those learning points from last week and our set piece was much better,” he reflected.

"We created three well-worked tries and kicked our penalties, but Rishworth were able to seize their chances from our unforced errors.”

A game played in intense heat was evenly contested throughout, with a couple of early penalties from the boot of Jed Carr leaving the Pythons 6-3 ahead after 10 minutes.

But, with Rishworth under real pressure following some determined forward play, the home fly-half was able to intercept an attempted pass and raced 80 metres to score under the ‘Gate posts.

The sides then exchanged penalties to make the score-line 13-9 to the hosts before Tom Carswell broke from deep in his half to release Harry Parrish, who outpaced the cover to finish in the corner and hand his side a 14-13 advantage.

Carr was again successful with another shot at goal, but Rishworth his straight back, meaning that the teams went into the interval separated by just a single point.

The Pythons were dominant in both the scrum and at line-outs during the early part of the second period and extended their lead when Carr provided winger Saul Adshead with a first opportunity to show his pace.

He rounded the home defence and broke a number of tackles before diving over in the corner for 22-16.

With ‘Gate on the verge of crossing once more, a spilled pass saw the the ball turned over and Rishworth again broke from deep to touchdown against the run of play.

The West Yorkshiremen added to their total with a penalty straight from the restart, then scored another try to go 31-22 up soon afterwards.

Undeterred, the Pythons hit back as Drane and Carr created space for Carswell to send a perfectly-weighted pass to Parrish, who stepped inside three defenders to register a score that was converted by Carr.

Trailing 31-29 with three minutes left on the clock, there was still time for ‘Gate to snatch a late win, but it was Rishworth who showed their Yorkshire One experience and grabbed another try to make sure of the victory.

This Saturday, Bird and his men entertain Wensleydale, who were promoted alongside them at the end of 2022/23.