Harrogate Pythons RUFC score five tries at Hullensians RUFC, but still suffer heavy loss

Dan Bird's men, who currently sit second-from-bottom of the pile, competed well throughout Saturday's contest, but for a disastrous 10-minute spell early on, which saw them ship 24 points and left them facing an uphill task.

"Giving the opposition a 24-point start is always going to present problems and this game proved to be no exception," Pythons coach Roy Mackay reflected.

"However, the lads rallied and scored some excellent tries to reduce the deficit by 12 points, but by half-time all three substitutes had been used due to injury. Within 10 minutes of the start of the second half, we had to play with 14 men when we lost a fourth player to injury.

"But, the positive from Saturday was the fact we scored five tries and earned a bonus point, which is a big plus in an attacking sense. Conversely, our defence was probably the poorest it has been all season and we really need to look at our individual ability to tackle."

The first few minutes saw the Pythons looking threatening, but Hullensians repeatedly found and exploited gaps in the away defence, running in four tries, two of which were converted.

'Gate got up and running when Steve Smith was held up short following a line-out, and Nick Bell managed to get the ball away to Jed Carr who dived over in the corner.

Hugh Tatlow then charged down an attempted clearance kick and Will Butler touched down next to the posts to make it 24-12 on 25 minutes.

Hullensians responded with their fifth try, but the Pythons kept coming and crossed the whitewash again when Bailey Bromberg gathered Carr's chip ahead and outpaced the home defence. Carr then added the extras for 31-19 half-time.

A converted try and a penalty for the hosts early in the second period ended 'Gate hopes of turning things around, taking the score-line to 41-19.

With Bird's men down to 14 men, Hullensians crossed again to open up a 48-19, though Ed Challis crashed over the line soon afterwards to narrow the gap slightly. 48-26.

Bell then danced through to finish under the posts and make it 48-33, but the closing stages saw Hullensians make full use of their extra man to add three more tries, rounding off the scoring at 69-33.