Forward-pass ruling stings Bees (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Forward-pass ruling stings Bees

3:47pm Sunday 7th September 2008 in Sport

Harrogate 28, Bradford & Bingley 11

With around 15 minutes of time added on, the heavens opened in this National League Three North derby and the Claro Road crowd ran for shelter, most of them thinking they had won 23-11.

However despite the atrocious conditions, Harrogate winger Sam Bottomley was on the end of a slick move up the right-hand touchline to scamper over for the final score of the game. That try may mean that the final scoreline flattered the hosts, but there can be no doubting that the better side won.

As the game wore on, the home side seemed to grow in confidence in attack and defence, where the Bees slumped badly after half-time and were frankly woeful in some aspects of the game.

The change in fortunes for both sides seemed to hinge on the seconds immediately before and after the half-time whistle.

Harrogate had taken an 13-11 lead with seven minutes remaining in the half, thanks to a score from veteran full back Ed Smithies, converted by fly half James Murray.

There seemed to be no reason to panic in the Bees ranks, as there was much in their play in the opening stanza that will have pleased coaches Neil Spence and Stuart Dixon: The Bees pack was clearly in the ascendancy, the rolling maul was proving an effective weapon up the middle of the field and half-backs Joe Bartlett and Matt Booth seemed to be marshalling their men well and varying the kicking and running options.

The Bees' use of the forwards to win the close battles was rewarded on 29 minutes when a third successive five-metre scrum opened up the blindside for Bartlett to slip over.

As the half drew to a close, the livewire Bartlett dipped inside a poor tackle and galloped clear up the right.

With the Harrogate defence struggling to cover the breach, Bartlett fed wing man Dave Moore, who slipped inside a final despairing tackler to cross for what appeared to be a nicely-worked score.

However, the officials thought differently and adjudged the final pass to have been forward.

The sides turned round with Harrogate holding their slim advantage, but almost straight from the kick-off the home side had stretched their advantage to nine points.

The ball bobbled around on halfway and a seemingly innocuous field position was suddenly transferred to a scoring one as an injection of pace from the Harrogate midfield, followed by swift passing along the back line, saw Smithies in for his second score of the game.

There is no doubting the Harrogate backs were increasingly showing some pace and guile, but they were greatly helped by a Bees defence which seemed unable to make the first tackle and was starting to leave inviting holes in midfield. This score seemed to hand the advantage to the home side and, although the Bees toiled vigourously at close quarters and centre Liam Frost almost got to the line with an electrifying burst, the possibility of the Wagon Lane men claiming two scores to win the game looked increasingly remote.

Murray slotted a penalty on 60 minutes to move his side 12 points in front, and as Neil Spence and Stuart Dixon tried a last roll of the dice by bringing on all their bench, Harrogate came out deserved winners.