POWERFUL prop Nathan Smith barn-stormed his way to a tremendous hat trick of tries to seal an excellent 23-17 away win for Huddersfield RU’s Under 16 side at Harrogate.

Both sets of forwards tested each other out in the opening stages, Harrogate kicking for position, and when their centre put in a kick and chase, the home side won the race to grab the game’s opening try.

Huddersfield were quick to respond, however, with No8 Louis Frear and Edward Smith taking play into Harrogate’s half, and backing up the initial move, Nathan Smith broke through a tackle before running strongly with several defenders in hot pursuit to score an outstanding try.

Gate tried to play out wide but Huddersfield’s defence were alert to the threat with flanker Matthew Tate, fly-half Lewis Bradley, centre Elliott Whetham and winger Ian Nuttall covering well.

Back inside Harrogate’s half, the home side were penalised and Smith took a quick tap and, with the defence not set, ran over 20m for a fine solo try to give his side the lead.

But the reverse happened minutes later as Harrogate took a quick tap penalty, taking advantage of the visitors’ being caught off guard and levelled the match at 10-10 with their second score, neither side’s kicker being on the mark with either try.

Huddersfield’s pack began the second half in determined fashion, taking play right up to Harrogate’s try-line, and when the home side were penalised for an infringement, stand-off Bradley used his fine rugby brain by taking a quick tap to himself and barging over the final five yards for another unconverted try.

Another penalty for Field, when scrum half Harvey Booth was impeded at a scrum, gave kicker Liam Moran the chance to put his side two scores ahead, and he duly landed the three-pointer.

Huddersfield had to put in a big defensive stint as Gate tried to get back into the contest, with second rower Conor Gundry and flankers Luke Pickard and Lawrence Ward showing great mobility and good tackling technique to keep the home side out.

But eventually a kick and chase paid dividends for Gate as they scored a converted try with 15 minutes remaining to leave the match down to a one-point game.

The visitors refused to buckle, however, and with just minutes to go set up another attack through Moran and winger Thomas Wrigley before the forwards continued driving forwards, and when Bradley was held a yard short, the ball was quickly recycled through the forwards and there was Smith to use his considerable strength and crash over for his hat trick try, which set the seal on the victory.