Defensive lapses were clinically exploited by the hosts whose discipline denied the visitors the opportunity to keep the scoreboard ticking over through the boot of Luke White. The silver lining came by way of a losing bonus point and a sixth successive scoring appearance for winger Dan Rundle.

Injury and unavailability ended weeks of settled selection. In the pack Sam Wilkes and Nick Murphy replaced Jack Lea and Liam Mather. Jacob Ham got his first start at scrum half with the versatile Joe Heatley resuming his outside centre responsibilities. Will Hollis started at inside centre with Luke White reverting to outside half. Joe Bridger returned from a loan spell at Bees to take a wing berth with Rod Petty at full back.

Harrogate kicked off with first use of wind and slope on a surface that was soft but stood up well to the morning rain. Stour ran a few phases before White launched a speculative chip over the defences that was fielded by Harrogate winger Harry Barnard. He lined up a chaser, broke a tackle and raced clear into the backfield. Rundle brought him down just short of the line but Harrogate recycled and Stour were relieved to see a ball carrier held up in in-goal. But the respite was short, a worked overlap resulted in a try in the corner for fullback Dave Doherty. 6min 7-0.

Harrogate fumbled the restart giving Stour a lineout from which the ball was moved off the top to Heatley whose running line saw him break clean through. The cover pulled him down just short of the line but his offload found the supporting Rundle who crossed to score, White converting. 8min 7-7.

A Billy Harding sneak through the fringe defences saw him make big yardage, but the defences regrouped quickly and White again had little option but to go aerial, again without success. With referee Michael Harris applying a strict standard in the tackle area both sides saw promising attacks stall from penalty concessions, the game descending into an uninspiring stop-start midfield slog and kickfest as handling errors prevented continuity in play. A penalty in the tackle area gave Harrogate outside-half Sam Fox a shot at goal from 40m out but he scuffed it and the half fizzled out with the scores level.

Stour rang the replacements but the pattern of the game continued much as before, defence dominating attack as neither side could hang on to the ball long enough to exert any serious pressure. But a Harrogate lineout in innocuous field position saw centre Keane Naylor break a tackle attempt and race into the Stour backfield, Barnard taking a scoring pass near the uprights. 53min 14-7.

Stour were finding their attacks all-too-easily smothered by the hosts’ drift defence, but eventually secured a penalty 40m out that they opted to kick to the corner. Harrogate were unable to defend a textbook catch & drive which produced a try for replacement prop Stef Thorp. 63min 14-12. Stour found themselves in similar field position shortly afterwards but the lineout throw was adjudged not straight, the Harrogate scrum resisted the inevitable onslaught and the opportunity went begging.

The hosts worked their way back upfield and moved the ball wide where Doherty found only token resistance, his run setting up a try for winger Oli Rosillo. 77min 19-12. Stour finished pinned in their own 22 and the game was finally up when they conceded a penalty on their own scrum feed, Fox’s miss from point-blank range providing a silver lining by way of a losing bonus point. Full time 19-12.

This week Stour host 2nd placed Sale eager to make inroads into the 11 league point margin that separates the sides in National 2 North. ko 3pm.