I have mis-placed my notebook.
It is probably just as well, for it recorded an event which is best forgotten. A tale of woe; a litany of ill-discipline, under achievement and, unfortunately, a disappointing defeat.
As other results on the day proved, no side should take victory as a given. This may not have been the case at the Apollo Capital Stadium, but it was well disguised in an error riddled and penalty strewn display.
The hosts spent the opening minutes in Ionians territory and after quarter of an hour took the lead their dominance deserved. Two quick tap penalties in the 22 had Ionians in all sorts of trouble and resulted in second-rower Jack Gilmartin powering over for a try and Rory McNab made sure of maximum return with the conversion.
Ionians hit back within five minutes. Their first foray into the Harrogate half gave them a scrum 10m from the line. A solid set piece allowed the ball to be swept across to Lewis Minikin and he ghosted through the line to score. He then tagged on the goal to bring things all square.
Undeterred, Harrogate continued to enjoy plenty of ball and domain. Powerful centre, Nuu Nuu, smashed his way up the middle of the field and got to within striking distance of the line. The back-up carried play on and presented the chance for veteran Sam Brady to plough his way to the line. McNab added his second conversion and the home side took a 14 – 7 lead.
Ionians spent the final five minutes of the first half in the home 22. From a line-out close to the try line they gathered and drove over. Lucas Powell emerged from a pile of bodies to claim the try. Minikin was unable to nail the difficult conversion and Ionians, fortuitously, went to the break only two points in arrears.
Ionians made a poor start to the second half. Dogged by ill-discipline, they were penalised yet again and Harrogate drove over for their third try, only four minutes into the second period. Flanker William Hill was a fair bet as the beneficiary. McNab made it three from three: 21 -12 to the hosts.
Ionians then won a penalty at a scrum, the one aspect of their game that was above acceptable, and Minikin added three points to Ionians total.
Ionians were beginning to find some cohesion in their play and a powerful run from Josh Britton threatened to cause havoc, only for the visitors to misbehave at the break-down, again, to give Harrogate an easy get out.
Ionians re-gained possession and came back at Harrogate. James Sanderson lead the charge from the tail of a line-out, Lucas Powell and Ben Stephenson took the ball on to within five yards and Alan Hudson finished the move off, carrying man and ball over the line to score.
Minikin’s goal attempt scraped some flaky paint off the up-right, regrettably to the wrong side, but Ionians had somehow got to within a point of the hosts, 21 -20 after 53 minutes of play.
On the hour Minikin enjoyed success off the tee from right in front of the sticks and Ionians took a quite unexpected (and frankly undeserved) two point lead.
It rather unravelled from here on in. Ionians had already just lost Sanderson to injury when they paid the penalty for their persistent poor discipline. Firstly, Ben Stephenson was yellow carded and five minutes later he was joined by George Mewburn.
Almost unbelievably Harrogate failed with a routine penalty chance, following Stephenson’s removal, but they made no mistake when Ionians were down to 13.
Ionians were asleep when Harrogate took a quick throw to the front of the line. Even though play was brought back to the mark Ionians stood and watched as Harrogate repeated the move and the Jacob Percival galloped clear down the touch line. He was stopped illegally and Harrogate took a quick tap and burrowed over for a bonus point try, Percival rewarded for his earlier endeavours with the score.
Harrogate wrapped it up with a break-away try in the closing minutes, Lucas Walsh finishing off a fine run from (I think) Amrit Sharma, to earn a deserved win, 35 -23.
Good though the win was it barely warranted the post-match celebrations by the home team, unless there was something I was unaware of. I was fully aware that Ionians had nothing to celebrate, nothing at all. Even without my notebook, I couldn't make it up.