Harrogate 20, Otley 11

A ten-mile journey was all that was required for Otley to forget their excellent performance of the previous week and sink into their habitual away form yesterday.

This SSE National League Two North effort was another abysmal display by Otley with mistakes by the score in a game they were capable of winning.

They gave their hosts an easy penalty chance when full back Nick Collins chose to run a deep kick, was caught and penalised for not releasing but the kick at goal was wide.

Otley took the lead on ten minutes when lock Tom O’ Donnell went over from a five-metre line-out.

A sticky ground did not help as both sides made handling errors, and a penalty set up Harrogate to reply in similar fashion, No 8 Ryan Peacey being driven over for fly half Callum Irvine to convert.

This was probably against the run of play but just before the break the hosts went further ahead when centre James Keinhorst, tackled when taking yet another inside pass from his fly half, was penalised for not releasing, Irvine being accurate with his kick.

The hope that Otley would resume with some sort of plan soon proved to be fanciful, and poor covering down the middle allowed full back Ed Smithies to come up that route for a try on 55 minutes, which centre Mike Aspinall converted.

Falling 17-5 behind did rouse Otley and two penalties (60 and 69 minutes) from replacement Nick Coupland had them back in the game but advice given to the referee at a penalty on halfway saw Aspinall have a much easier chance to make the game safe.