Hartpury slide out of play-off places
By Luke Jarmyn, John Lyon & Ben Nurse, at Paton Field
IT was Grand National Day with the great race taking place just 11 miles north of Caldy where Hartpury arrived as the tipster’s bankers, having won the last seven games against their Merseyside opponents, including three on the road at Paton Field.
Alongside being favourites, Mark Cornwell’s men were looking to get back-to-back wins for the first time since early February and re-ignite any hopes of a play-off place.
Despite Hartpury’s poor run of form, which had seen just one victory in the last six games, Caldy were in the midst of a similarly dire run of results having suffered six straight defeats and had come off second best to the university side in all seven of their previous Champ clashes.
In typically wet and blustery conditions for Paton Field near the Wirral coast, Hartpury fly-half Harry Bazalgette kicked-off, and playing towards the car park end of the ground the visitors started the stronger of the two.
Within five minutes a sweeping move into the left corner saw winger Ollie Holliday finish a delightful wrap around move to get over the tryline and dot the ball down, with Harry Bazalgette on hand as ever to score the conversion.
It wasn’t long and Caldy, keen to not lie down, hit back with a nice phase of play and some beautiful interplay beginning in their own half before being finished off by scrum-half Ollie Wynn side-stepping his way to the whitewash. A Kieran Wilkinson conversion locked the sides up against each other at 7-7.
With the strong west Cheshire wind making line-outs and tactical kicks tricky, the game was a physical and confrontation affair.
Despite it being very even, Hartpury begun to gain field position and edge the contest before a penalty against the Ravers led to a penalty kick and Bazalgette re-asserting the reds lead on the half-hour mark.
This was followed up by the reds continuing to chip away at Ravers line before a perfectly executed Bazalgette cross-field kick led to inside-centre Max Knight dotting the ball down in front of the clubhouse, and the stand-off’s conversion gave the university side a ten-point lead at the interval.
With the conditions in Caldy’s favour for the second-half, the hosts were stymied by Wynn being sin-binned on the 42nd minute after a series of infringements and warnings from referee Jonathan Cook.
Hartpury couldn’t take advantage of the extra man, and instead gave away a series of penalties to put themselves under pressure with lock Cameron Cobbett making a try-saving intervention at a Ravers attacking line-out on the 50th minute.
Make to a full complement, Caldy pinned Hartpury deep in their own half and the pressure told on the 55th minute as in less than 60 seconds Bazalgette was sin-binned for a high tackle before the hosts kicked the ball to the corner and hooker Matt Gallagher got the ball over the try-line at the back of a line-out driving-maul move.
Kieran Wilkinson’s conversion sailed wide of the uprights to keep Hartpury ahead 17-12, but the one-off camo-colour shirted Caldy side were immediately pinning the Gloucestershire side deep in their own 22-metre area.
A Caldy chip-and-chase looked to have scored but for a knock-on over the hour-mark, however three minutes later a goal-line dropout error gave the Cheshire hosts possession and live-wire openside Daniel Owen duck and dived over the try-line from close range.
Wilkinson produced another conversion miss to keep the scores at 17-17.
The relentless pressure against Hartpury continued, and a rare scrum-time penalty against the reds led to a penalty-kick and Wilkinson amending his earlier misses by sending the ball between the sticks to put Caldy ahead for the first time on the 73rd minute.
Hartpury had a late revival, winning a couple of penalties and Bazalgette kicked the ball deep into Caldy’s half but it barely dented the Cheshire side as they earned their first ever win over the reds who were the last team of the current Champ crop that they’d never earned a victory against.
Stats:
|
Caldy RFC |
|
Hartpury RFC |
|
7 |
Penalties conceded |
11 |
|
12 |
Lineouts won |
10 |
|
3 |
Lineouts lost |
3 |
|
7 |
Scrums won |
4 |
|
0 |
Scrums lost |
0 |
|
1 |
Sin bin |
1 |
|
0 |
Red card |
0 |
Caldy RFC: Charlie Hyde, Rhys Tudor, Connor Wilkinson, Michael Barlow, William Robinson, Kieran Wilkinson, Oliver Wynn; Nathan Rushton (Monty Weatherby 55), Matthew Gallagher, Ryan Higginson (Joseph Sproston 55), Max Loboda, Dylan Hodkinson, Sam Olyott (Martin Gerrard 60), Daniel Owen, Josiah Dickinson
Replacements not used: Oliver Hearn, Jack Wilson, Thomas Akehurst, Cameron Brown, Lewis Barker
Tries: Oliver Wynn 11, Matthew Gallagher 55, Daniel Owen 67
Conversions: Kieran Wilkinson 12
Penalties: Kieran Wilkinson 73
Sin Bin: Oliver Wynn 42
Hartpury RFC: Bradley Denty, Charlie Powell (Haydn Lewis 70), Robert Smith, Max Knight, Ollie Holliday, Harry Bazalgette, Cai Gealy (Sam Allford 76); Louie Trevett (Harrison Bellamy 55), Will Crane (Ethan Hunt 61), Jon Benz-Salomon (Alex Gibson 64), Cameron Cobbett (Peter Paramore 61), Jack Davies, Harry Taylor, Harry Short (Jarrard Hayler 61), Tom Worts
Replacement not used: Victor Worsnip
Tries: Ollie Holliday 5, Max Knight 37
Conversions: Harry Bazalgette 6, 38
Penalties: Harry Bazalgette 30
Sin Bin: Harry Bazalgette 55
Referee: Jonathan Cook (RFU)
Half-Time: 7-17 (to Hartpury RFC)
Attendance: 1,451
Star Players: Dylan Hodkinson (Caldy) / Max Knight (Hartpury RFC)
Reaction:
Defeat raises questions over Hartpury’s season
By Luke Jarmyn, John Lyon & Ben Nurse, at Paton Field
HARTPURY’s defeat to Caldy sees Mark Cornwell’s side slip out of the top-six play-off places after winning only one of their last seven Champ fixtures.
Saturday’s loss continues what has been quite a drop off since February after a fabulously strong start to the season had seen Hartpury’s RFC side consistently in the top four, having lost only once in nine games before the defeat to Ealing Trailfinders on Valentines Day.
Speaking after the final-whistle fly-half Harry Bazalgette highlighted a lack of desire as one reason Hartpury fell short against Caldy.
He said: “Caldy made it a scrap, they didn’t want to play too much and looked to go aerial a lot, we probably weren’t desperate enough to win those 50-50 contests that it creates.
“You look at how many of those contestables went to floor and came back on their side, I think we lacked the desperation to get back in the game and find some consistency.
“It’s been a theme this season, it’s been up and down and personnel wise we’ve lacked that consistency too, as a game-manager you want to have the same people in and around you week in, week out, which has been a struggle for us”
Speaking on his own personal performance in a game where he secured a try assist and was faultless from the tee, a humble Bazalgette – who remains The Champ’s top points scorer – said: “I was actually pretty happy but the yellow card was a big moment which cost us and I am sure Mark (Cornwell) won’t let me forget about it.”
Hartpury scrum coach Ryan Bower echoed Bazalgette’s sentiments, touching on how Caldy dragged them into a dog fight which did not suit their game. He said: “It is disappointing because we came here full of confidence and played well in parts of the first half but they just slowed us down, killed our quick ball and unfortunately penalties cost us all our field position.”
The ill-discipline was unfortunately a theme of the second half for Hartpury, with multiple attacking sets ending after only a few phases due to the referees’ whistle, Bower said: “Our penalty count got to ten and it meant we couldn’t play and we ended up stuck in our half with the wind against us.
“We lost the battle in the midfield in that second half and it meant we got pinned in our corners a lot which is a hard place to be.”
Looking ahead Hartpury’s season is not yet over, with a place in the top six still at stake, Bower was keen to stay positive and highlight a trip back to Hartpury next Saturday. He added: “We have Nottingham at home next week and we are keen to bounce back, there are still three games to go so it’s all to play for really.”
Meanwhile, Caldy’s director of rugby Gareth Davies voice his delight at beating Hartpury and securing their tier two status for next season.
He said: “Another Immense defensive performance by us at Paton Field, limiting an athletic free scoring Hartpury side to just two tries cements our league position. It was a top performance by the squad showcasing our resilience and togetherness. We will certainly have a few beers tonight.”
