Thrills and spills at Claro Road.

Heath U17’s travelled to the beautiful spa town of Harrogate for the League Division One encounter with Harrogate under 17’s. From the Harrogate kick off, Heath collected safely, and then conventionally had several forward drives. The eager Heath backs quickly spread the ball wide and, after some text book ‘draw and pass’ handling, released Lewis Mc Kensie with a 35 yard dash to touch down in the corner (0-5). From the restart it was quickly evident that the team were following coach Hetherington’s strategy to play an expansive and expressive game to take full advantage of Heath’s speed on the wide Claro Road First team pitch. Slick handling released Luke Matthews close to the touch line, on half way, and he outpaced the cover defence to finish off under the sticks, for an easy conversion by Ezra Hinchliffe, 12 points in 12 minutes. Harrogate finally took possession of the ball, took play into Heath’s 22 and for 10 minutes they pressurised the Heath line. Magnificent defence from the whole Heath team, including a crucial turnover by Captain Stephen Hare and some great clearance kicks by Jack Crabtree, defused this strong period of play by the hosts. The Game then entered a period of Heath possession but with several knock-ons and forward passes Heath struggled to progress, until the ball finally flowed out to centre Jack Sheldrake who glided through the Harrogate defence from 50 yards out to score near the posts with another conversion for Hinchliffe (0-19). From the kick off, Hare collected the ball and off loaded to the rampaging Kofi Brobbey, who set up the perfect ruck for the speedy pass of Peter Birkett to hit standoff Hinchliffe who chipped over the Harrogate backs, collected the ball and sprinted to the posts to create an easy conversion for himself. (0-26) at Half Time. The forwards and especially the front row of Lewis Foxton, James Wilkinson and Mathew Dinsdale, started to put ever more pressure on the Harrogate scrum and taking a further two balls against the head created a dominant platform for the Heath backs to express themselves in the wide open space. This resulted in a try for Ben Corney-Critchley with 2 points added by Hinchliffe (0-33). More open play and creative running by Jonathan Porrit resulted in an attacking scrum in front of the Harrogate posts. Hare picked up and went blind, fed Birkett who powered past the defence for a try, converted by Jonathon Porritt. (0-40). A superb piece of uninterrupted passing between 9 players resulted in Birkett hitting a superb angle for his second try converted by Hinchliffe (0-47). Heath now playing with real flare and confidence created the space for an elusive and powerful run by Will Colbeck to score in the corner, again converted by Hinchliffe. ( 0-54). Quick thinking Stephen Hare took a tap penalty catching the defence off guard, broke several tackles and off loaded to James Chin who finished off in the corner ( 0-59). From the kick off Brobbey collected and powerfully burst through the Harrogate line to set up a sound platform for the backs to draw and pass again down the line for Colbeck to take his second try in the corner (0-64). With minutes remaining and the ball going through several pairs of hands, including Brad Davies who had worked tirelessly all afternoon, the ever present and barnstorming George Smith powered over near the uprights again creating an easy conversion for Hinchliffe and a winning score of 71 – 0 in Heath’s favour.