Game ends prematurely as Cadgey pulls one off!

The one man shortage was rectified by the loaning of a back rower, which led to Utility Murphy moving into the back line once again.
Captain Cadge tossed and won, selecting to play down the hill and try to eke out some sort of advantage. Early raids from the Pirates were repelled before their superior speed and manoeuvres worked the space for an early try despite spirited defence from Nial, Phil the Power and Stuey. The back three of Billy, The Herring and Utility Murphy scrambled and skirmished well but the tide of Pirates overwhelmed the visitors again and a further try was leaked. Cadgey stirred up the forwards and the packs battled valiantly in the midfield mud while the young referee made more curious decisions. Eventually the hard working Patsy became frustrated enough to query one decision too many and was sent for a 10 minute rest. Leo’s threw themselves into the fray once again but were unable to make much headway against the strong home defence, their marginally transgressing back row and the unsympathetic official. Leo’s finally found themselves in Pirate waters following some cheeky breaks from Jamie and good lineout work from the Farmer+ Goff + CJ axis but were unable to register any real scoring opportunities.
Pete Herring left the field with a damaged fin, to be replaced by another Pirate guest and Cadgey implored a second half fightback. Up the hill and into the Pirate hordes the gallant visitors surged into territorial supremacy. The backs ran hard and straight while the pack drove, recycled and drove again. Matt and Scotty set up some maulage and the back row added some fringing pace. The breakdown became more fractious as turnovers were secured by Leo’s but handed back to Harrogate by the confused referee. Incessant pressure from Leo’s forced back foot defence on the Harrogate line before one offence too many resulted in a penalty try which Scotty converted. The peeved Pirates hurtled back into attack and refreshed their lines with a few Python substitutes as their more senior clubmates were without a game. Leo’s conceded a couple more tries but competed for everything to retain some pride and a respectable score-line. Cadgey, Farmer Jim and Matt gave their opposite front row a torrid 10 minutes which resulted in some stern talking too from the referee. At the next maul Cadgey, fed up with his opponents lack of proper binding pulled his shirt over his head and spun him round. The mildest of kerfuffles followed with Scotty and Pirate Fortress bashing bellies and shouting “Leave it, it’s not worth it” in true macho fashion while the referee panicked and abandoned the game!
Despite a yellow card and a penalty try there was nothing nasty going on all afternoon and the final fracas was more Louis Vuitton than Joe Louis followed by bemused handshakes and retirement for beer and fireworks.