Jake bags Brady bragging rights with bonus-point win
Jake Brady, the Tykes’ player and General Manager, marked his 100th appearance for the team with a triumphant return to Harrogate RUFC. It was a doubly significant occasion as his brother, Sam Brady, celebrated his 250th appearance for Harrogate. Reflecting on the day, Jake said: “It was nice being back here celebrating with my brother and my family. The most important thing was the win.”
The game saw Jake claim early bragging rights in the sibling showdown, delivering a crunching tackle on Sam. However, Harrogate quickly recovered, shipping the ball wide for Amrit Sharma to score his first try of the match. five minutes later, Eliah Chitiyo accelerated down the wing, and with swift ball movement across the pitch, Ewan Evans crossed the line Leeds’ first try of the match. James Watts added the conversion.
For much of the next 25 minutes, the game was bogged down between the 22-metre lines. Both teams fought for possession and territory, with neither side dominating in open play or at scrums. The deadlock was broken when Tom Williams pierced the Harrogate defensive line, setting up Chitiyo to score his first try of the day.
The closing minutes of the first half delivered a flurry of action. Sharma scored his second try for Harrogate with another well-executed wide move. In response, Ben Dixon charged down a Harrogate clearance to touch down, followed shortly by Adam Brown finishing off a powerful drive to secure a bonus-point try for Leeds. Both of Watts’ conversions were successful.
A cheer went up from the travelling Tykes supporters as the Leeds scrum shoved the North Yorkshire outfit back 6-7 metres, setting the stage for Chitiyo’s second try, converted by Kit Keith. Harrogate put their catch and drive at the line out to good use, causing problems for Leeds’ defence, allowing James Maycock to score a try.
Leeds soon regained momentum, with Charlie Venables adding a try, converted once again by Keith. Harrogate, eager to claim their own bonus-point try, succeeded through another close-range catch-and-drive, finished off by Martin Dodds and converted by Tom Steene.
The final moments belonged to Chitiyo, who completed his hat-trick in style. Catching a sleight of hand offload from Jerry Turagabeci on Harrogate’s 10-metre line, Chitiyo weaved his way to the try line. Keith added the extras to cap off the game.
Speaking after the match, Director of Rugby, Pete Seabourne said: “It was decent performance in tricky conditions, obviously it’s wet underfoot and sticky. It took us a while to get going, and we scored some nice tries at times. But then you know we fell off defensively. I don’t think we got out of third gear much today. We did enough to win the game and get 5 points.
Jake Brady added: “It was an interesting one; my 100th game being back at my old club against my brother and it was his 250th game as well. A bit of a freak occurrence really. But to be honest, although it’s a nice achievement, we didn’t really want to focus on it too much. It was more about get a 5-point win for the team and then enjoy the victory afterwards.”