Match report:
Austin at the ready as Hartpury claim Bedford scalp
by Rhys Anderson & Luke Jarmyn, at the 4ED Hartpury Stadium
MIKE Austin experienced rugby’s extreme highs and pulsating lows as the scrum-half scored two tries but suffered the ignominy of the sin-bin as Hartpury claimed a 29-26 victory over Bedford Blues.
Second-rower Jack Davies and wing Ollie Holliday also crossed the whitewash for the home-side while fly-half Harry Bazalgette kicked nine points from the tee in a winning return to league action after a two-week break.
It’s a big result for Mark Cornwell’s men, who are sitting fourth in the Championship standings and the win has closed the gap to second-top Bedford to just three points.
With a thin grey cloud hanging over the Gloucestershire ground, but conditions otherwise near perfect, the first action occurred immediately from kick-off with Bedford penalised for taking out a player in the air.
That allowed the hosts to make a rapid start to the game as captain Jack Davies received an offload and dotted down to score an early try in the right corner. Bazalgette added the conversion.
Bedford showed they weren’t afraid to attack just over five minutes later as they went through the phases with the move being finished off by loose-head prop Oisin Heffernan who propelled himself over the line just left of the posts. Blues fly-half Will Maisey’s conversion levelled the matched.
Hartpury restored their lead quickly though as a penalty at the breakdown allowed Bazalgette to take a kick at goal from around 35 metres out in front of the posts to make it 10-7.
The scoreboard was ticking over at pace, and on the 17th minute Hartpury fullback, Alex Morgan, made a magical run down the left flank to break through the strong Blue-shirted line before passing to Austin who placed the ball to the left of the posts. Bazalgette converted.
The visitors thought they had closed the gap but their attempted maul drive over the line was well held up by a gritty defence shown by Hartpury over towards the far touchline.
Five minutes before half-time Hartpury extended their lead by another five points as loosehead prop Jon Benz-Solomon picked the ball up from the base of the ruck and used his explosive power to exploit a gap before threading a pass through to Austin for the scrum-half to grab his second try of the half, in a near identical fashion to his first. Bazalgette missed the conversion.
On the stroke of half-time, the hero from the first half very quickly went to zero as Austin was sin-binned for attempting an intercept but unfortunately intentionally knocked the ball on in the process.
As a result, Bedford managed to pull another try back as they used the man advantage to spread the line of Hartpury’s defence, allowing inside-centre Joel Matavesi to score a try. Maisey converted to make the half-time score 22-14 to Hartpury.
The second half started in a gruesome fashion as try-scorer Matavesi’s leg seemed to get stuck in the turf and bodies fell on it which ended his afternoon early.
However, Bedford continued to make use of their player advantage at the start of the second-half as they went over in the corner through fullback Louis James after passing all the way through the line. Maisey missed the conversion.
An awkward bounce would help Hartpury regain their lead as the ball bounced over the defender just in front of the Bedford try-line and allowed left-winger Ollie Holliday to score to the left of the posts. Bazalgette’s conversion went over despite bouncing off the upright.
Less than a minute later, Bedford scored what proved to be the final points of the game as replacement inside-centre Lucas Titherington broke through a tackle and managed to use his quick feet to shuffle past the defence and over the line to the right of the posts. Maisey converted to make the score 29-26 Hartpury.
The final 25 minutes were nervy and tense as Hartpury looked to hold but several mistakes in the wrong areas of the field left them with plenty of work to do.
The scrum became unsettled after the replacements and several reset scrums killed a lot of time and resulted in many scrum penalties given to both teams.
With just under 15 minutes to play, Bedford came close to taking the lead as a good passage of play left the visitors charging up the right touchline before winger Alfie Garside knocked the ball on only two metres out from the line.
Only five minutes from time, Bazalgette kicked a 50:22 allowing the hosts to have possession in the final third, both threatening to score extra points to move them out of touch but also killing the clock.
With two minutes to go, Bedford had a lineout inside the Hartpury half but the throw wasn’t straight and that penalty was the beginning of the end for Blues as the hosts kicked back down the field before a scrum penalty sealed the victory for Hartpury.
The win extends Hartpury’s home record to six wins in a row and moves them up to 42 points with rivals Coventry and today’s opponents Bedford on 44 and 45 points respectively.
Post-match quotes:
Hartpury head coach Mark Cornwall said: “We're made it difficult for ourselves. I thought we were the best side for the first 25-30 minutes.
“We allowed a couple of breaks to let Bedford into the game. We knew they were dangerous, so we knew they were going to keep coming.
“We couldn’t seem to exit off our restart and I was basically trying to tell the boys, two minutes before half time, that we needed to get through it nice and clean but then we took that yellow card and it cost us two tries in the end.
“You don’t want to lose your scrum half, certainly not to a yellow card, so it’s tough there, and we had to manage that time when we came back on after half time until we got our nine back.
“It then turned into a battle of the midfield towards the end of the game where they were trying to get on top of us and they were being good defensively. We were being disciplined but a couple of little errors in the wrong areas of the pitch cost us but I'm glad we got over the line and the boys deserved it.
“We didn’t know the condition of the pitch but we haven’t had any rain for a couple of weeks so the pitch is bone dry and the ball bounced a couple of times in our favour. We were fortunate.
“I think it was a case of desperation to try and get the points. We lost down at Bedford in the second game of the season in the last minute. It hurt the boys because we thought we did enough to win it so we didn’t want to do it again today.
“The boys off the bench were excellent today. They impacted the game; they got the defensive set over the line so I was happy with that last 10 minutes.
“There’s only a fortress until you lose your next game. The boys love playing here, they’re confident here. We’re a different animal at home than we are away. We’ve struggled a couple of times away from home this year.
“They love playing in front of their home crowd but doesn’t everyone?”
Hartpury’s try scoring scrum-half Mike Austin said: “It's a massive result for our season. We want to be pushing up in the top four and you know they’re a side that's right up there every year in the championship. So, to beat teams like that is a massive positive for us.
“I scored two tries early on in the game, and then I got the yellow card so I didn’t think I'd be able to get the Man of the Match award but thankfully I did.
“I put in a shift but it’s a 23-man game. It doesn’t matter if only one of us performs well, we’ve all got to do it collectively and I thought we did that today.
“I think the results speak for themselves.
“We feel a real emphasis to make our home a fortress. We’ve got to win our home games if we want to place well in the league and that’s a massive thing for us.
“We love playing here, we love playing in front of our fans and it’s a massive result.
“We just had to adapt our gameplay, we’ve got to be good enough to adapt on the fly and thankfully we were.
“We just looked to keep the ball moving, keep the ball in plenty of space instead of just running into brick walls.
“I prefer to play on a bone-dry pitch. We like to play running rugby and that helps us a lot. But look, that’s rugby. On another day those bounces go against us and we could have lost the game.
“You’ve got to take the rough with the smooth and hopefully we can. Luckily, we came out on the right side today.”
Hartpury:
Tries: Jack Davies 3, Mike Austin 17, 36, Ollie Holliday 51
Conversions: Harry Bazalgette 4, 18, 52
Penalties: Harry Bazalgette 13
Drop Goals: N/A
Bedford Blues:
Tries: Oisin Heffernan 9, Joel Matavesi 40, Louis James 48, Lucas Titherington 53
Conversions: Will Maisey 10, 40+1, 54
Penalties: N/A
Drop Goals: N/A
Team line-ups:
Hartpury: Alex Morgan; Brad Denty (Alex Forrester 65), Josiah Edwards-Giraud, Robbie Smith (Jack Johnson 62); Ollie Holliday, Harry Bazalgette, Mike Austin (JJ Williams 77); Aristot Benz-Solomon (Archie McArthur 62), Ethan Hunt (George Knowles 65), Jon Benz-Solomon (Alex Gibson 75), Dale Lemon, Jack Davies ©, Sam Lewis, Harry Short (Josh Gray 67), Jarrard Hayler (Cameron Cobbett 62)
Bedford Blues: Louis James; Alfie Garside, Michael Le Bourgeois, Joel Matavesi (Lucas Titherington 46), Dean Adamson; Will Maisey, Alex Day © (James Lennon 68); Joey Conway (Jamie Jack 55), Tommy Herman (James Fish 46), Oisin Heffernan (Beltus Nonleh 75), Rory Ward (Ed Prowse 46), Alex Woolford, Luke Frost, Joe Howard (Archie Benson 55), Fred Tuilagi
Unused subs: Matt Worley
Referee: Alex Thomas (RFU)
Attendance: 1,020
Half-time: 22 - 14 (to Hartpury)
Star players: Mike Austin (Hartpury) / Oisin Heffernan (Bedford)
Stats:
Hartpury:
Penalties conceded: 6
Line-outs won: 14
Line-outs lost: 1
Scrums won: 6
Scrums lost: 0
Sin-bins: 1 (Mike Austin 39’)
Bedford:
Penalties conceded: 12
Line-outs won: 8
Line-outs lost: 2
Scrums won: 9
Scrums lost: 1
Sin-bins: 0
