Key win saves Wharfedale

WELL, the job was done and done so completely and compellingly that the delirious Dales' supporters were as captivated by the thrilling nature of the contest as by the momentous significance of the result.

Safe at last, with the other results banished to mere curiosity value and the cynical undisguised glee of club treasurers no longer faced with costly Cornish capers.

Homespun Launceston in the end go down, Nottingham and the meretricious Newbury stay up and, much, much more importantly, our rural Yorkshire rugby heartland retains a national stage for aspiring local players of the requisite talent and ambition.

And let's be clear about how tough a fight it's been. In the bottom three for the greater part of the season, with a depleted, struggling team. And, even when dangerously late on in the campaign they were restored to full, competitive strength, they were still faced with the daunting task of winning each of the last four games under the mounting pressure when at any stage the slightest slip-up meant the end. It has taken character and guts, on and off the field, as well as some superlatively effective play.

The final Harrogate hurdle proved in the end no real obstacle. Wharfedale played with so ruthless a focus and disciplined a command that long before the end they were worthy winners in a game that was for the most part tightly fought and even furiously contested.

They controlled the pattern and, equally importantly, the pace of the match throughout, even to some extent when under the cosh for the most of the first-half when penned deep in their own half.

Their dogged defence up front and hallmark fierce tacking wide out, the cornerstone for the victory, repelled repeated Harrogate attempts to drive to the line from corner-flag penalties and limited them to a single Lee Cholewa penalty.

But the Greens were under pressure at this stage as much as anything from their own lack of cohesion at the back of the scrum - the one blemish in their fine overall performance - yet the home side were never sufficiently on top to turn their pressure into significant points or a threatening lead.

And, once the siege was lifted, it was Wharfedale who gained ever-increasing control, punctuating their progress towards victory with three superb, precisely judged and clinically executed tries.

All three were products of the hard mental edge which characterised the team's performance and sensed the fleeting moment of clear-cut opportunity and exacted full reward. Fittingly the level of contest required that the team's classiest performers were required to claim the spoils.

Almost inevitably it was Hedley Verity, back to his marauding best, who set up the opening try. If anyone has epitomised Wharfedale for over a decade it is Verity and certainly it has been his loss during the bulk of the season that has been most sorely missed. He has always particularly relished the challenge of containing the destructive force of the Harrogate pack.

Going forward he may no longer be the devastating force of old, but his deep driving into the home 22 in a game where the gain line was hardly breeched by either side revived memories of him in his prime, as he set up the space for David Pears' tight run and swiftly-timed pass to put Gareth Johnston over in the corner.

The second try, after 62 minutes, clinched the game. David Lister has now played in every game of the season for the last five long years and on Saturday - in the absence of his long-term partner Capstick - represented Wharfedale's lone line-out hand.

Persistently taken out after the jump, the carding of prop Paul Gabriel brought a depleted line-out which at last allowed referee Tim Wigglesworth the opportunity to penalise the offence and provide the Dale with a corner-flag throw. Faced with a legal challenge, Wharfedale produced a text-book catch and drive for Ben Wade, another massively influential figure in the Greens' revival, to score.

The final try put the match beyond dispute. Fittingly, it belonged to David Pears. The outside-half had provided a master-class in disciplined, steely competitiveness and control which orchestrated the Greens' success.

Throughout the second-half especially he produced a superb kicking exhibition which firmly denied the opposition any chance of a late challenge for the match. Equally valuable too was the confidence he communicated in the service of his young scrum-half, who was harried unmercifully at the back of the scrum.

When Pears ran, he did so with devastating effect, with a short-side break to the line after Andy Baggett had nailed James Tapster with a tackle of determined pace and timing.

Jonathan Davies also weighed in tellingly, vitally converting each of the three tries as well as adding two penalties and a fine covering tackle at a crucial moment to halt a real Harrogate threat.

But the ultimate triumph, for all the telling contributions of its key figures, goes firmly to the side as a whole and particularly its tremendous display of offensive tacking. Three times in this crucial final four match run-in they have kept a clean sheet - Nottingham, Doncaster and now high scoring Harrogate have been denied a try between them.

How impressively Wharfedale have responded in the end to the challenge of retaining their National League status and, as importantly for the future, in facing the intensity of truly competitive pressure.

Harrogate: E Smithies; M Farrar, J Barker, J Vissier, J Tapster; L Cholewa, R Morgan (capt); P Gabriel, M Erven, R Wilson, J Dudley, A Boyle, M Worden, S Hobson, R Wade (P Taylor 48)

Wharfedale: A Hodgson (capt); J Davies, C Malherbe, A Baggett, G Johnston; D Pears, S Cottrell; P Peel, J Ogden, N Dickinson (C Ingram 70), D Lister, P Evans, H Verity (O Renton), P Hargreaves, B Wade

Referee: Tim Wigglesworth (RFU)