Although short on confidence after successive reverses, Stour needed no second invitation, recording a bonus point 4th try by the half-hour and were then content to give their defensive drills a workout as they spent much of second-half defending a lead that the hosts were unable to claw back.

An injury in the warm up produced a late call up and debut on the wing for travelling reserve Lukas Sinkunas. Harrogate registered the first score in the opening exchanges, working the ball around to stretch the visitors’ defences and a neat offload carving an opening finished off in the corner by hooker Aurin Yorke.

Undeterred Stour pressed their first attack, securing a penalty in the Harrogate 22 and kicking to the corner. With the ball knocked from jumper Chris Depper’s grasp, scrum half Toby Handley spun it wide, after several probing runs no.8 Connor Nicholls spotted an overlap on the left, delayed his pass to perfection and put Joe Bridger in at the corner.

Harrogate gathered the restart and ran back at Stour. They had numbers stacked up on the right but a loose pass near the Stour 10m line was picked off by winger Josh Trinham who hared downfield, outpacing the cover to score in the same corner.

Outside half Chris Scott missed with a long-range kick at goal after the hosts were penalised gain. Their indiscipline continued to cost them, Stour kicking to the corner and looking to drive a maul, Handley’s show and go opening enough space for him to sneak through the fringe defences to score. Scott opened his account with the conversion.

The Stour scrum got to work, forcing a penalty when the hosts’ front row stood up under pressure on their own feed, but Scott was unable to land another long-range shot at goal.

Handley kicked infield from just outside the Stour 22, the chase regathered it and Stour drove up the middle. Spotting a mismatch in the defensive line centres James Otutaha and Joe Heatley worked a switch move and left the defence clutching thin air as Heatley blasted though to score the bonus point 4th try.

With their tails up Stour kicked another penalty to the corner but were penalised for holding on in the tackle. Harrogate drove upfield but their drives were contained by a well-organised Stour defence that finally forced a penalty for holding on. Halftime 7-24.

Harrogate drove an early 2nd half attack to within inches of the Stour line before being penalised for holding on. With a 3-score lead Stour were content to hang onto the ball, trucking it up the middle and taking few risks. A break by Trinham saw him hauled down just short of the line but the opportunity went begging when a pass went loose and possession was turned over. Harrogate offended again in front of their posts but the kick at goal was missed.

Harrogate finally moved the scoreboard again when a worked lineout move saw replacement hooker Tom Larder crash over in the corner. A promising move produced what looked a walk-in for Harrogate’s winger but was called back for a forward pass, and with no further scoring Stour left satisfied with a bonus point win.

Next week Stour host their annual ex-players’ lunch and take on old adversaries Preston Grasshoppers, ko 3pm.