Ealing hold on against fired up Hartpury side
By Joshua Matheson, at the Hartpury College ground.
Ealing Trailfinders put in a professional performance to claim victory against Hartpury RFC, holding on to win despite the Londoners fly-half Craig Willis seeing a yellow card in the 54th minute.
A handful of familiar faces lit up the game for Ealing including Billy Twelvetrees who used his experience to put his side on the front foot on multiple occasions in a highly physical game.
The boot of Harry Bazalgette caught the home crowd’s eyes in the first half, slotting over three penalties. The first of those came in the fifth minute but Ealing’s number eight, Rayn Smid, managed to squeeze his way across the line on the 12th minute.
The visitors looked to be on the wrong side of the referee, conceding penalty after penalty making it difficult for Trailfinders to get a foothold on the game.
However, Twelvetrees – a Gloucester hall of famer - got himself under the posts not long after, just three minutes later. His centre partner, Ruben Bird-Tulloch, stabbed the ball through the opposition backline and it was Twelvetrees who dived on it to take the score to 3-10. Willis adding the extras.
The visitors high penalty count saw Bazalgette convert two more penalties, before openside Harry Short dotted down as a driving-maul rolled over just after the half-hour mark, giving Hartpury a 16-12 lead.
Ealing’s scrum dominance then showed, with No.8 Smid coming off the back on an immense scrum shunt to score, giving Trailfinders a half-time lead.
A fantastic Reuben Bird-Tulloch line break led to Wales international Jonah Holmes dancing over in the corner for Ealing’s bonus point.
Despite Willis seeing yellow for a deliberate knock-on, replacement back-rower Ollie Newman scored off a driving maul that proved all too powerful for the Hartpury defence after the pressure was on them for multiple phases.
Hartpury then turned the tables, through Mike Austin straight from a restart. Lock Dale Lemon brilliantly regathered the falling ball and flung it inside to the replacement scrum half, who dived over in the corner. The conversion was successful from Bazalgette. The gap tightened to a six-point game, 23-29.
Replacement hooker Matt Cornish entered the game with a try from a powerful driving maul under a sea of Ealing bodies.
Several penalties and errors crept into the home side’s outfit which cost them possession, territory and points, with Austin then getting a second try in the corner of a line break in the final minutes, but Hartpury fell short of either a try or losing bonus point, despite their effort.
Mark Cornwall, Hartpury head coach, said: “We showed a lot of character which is what I asked from the boys because when you play Ealing you know you’re up against it. Physically and tactically. All I wanted for us is to show character. I have to take my hat off to the boys because they got stuck in from minute one to eighty and showed a lot of character and effort today.”
“There was a few errors from exits of ours and rushed a couple. A good side like Ealing will pounce on that and they did. Overall physically we got stuck into them and caused them a few issues I think throughout the whole game.”
Stats:
Hartpury:
Penalties conceded: 10
Lineouts won: 9
Lineouts lost: 1
Scrums won: 5
Scrums lost: 1
Sin bin/red: 0
Ealing:
Penalties conceded: 15
Lineouts won: 9
Lineouts lost: 0
Scrums won: 4
Scrums lost: 0
Sin bin/red: 1/0
Hartpury:
Tries: Short 32, Austin 61, 74
Conversions: Bazalgette 62
Penalties: Bazalgette 5, 21, 27
Drop Goals:
Ealing:
Tries: Smid 12, 40, Twelvetrees 14, Holmes 52, Newman 58, Cornish 71
Conversions: Willis 15, 40, 72
Penalties:
Drop Goals:
Hartpury: Jones 7, Ward 7, Smith 7, Ascherl 8, Denty 7, Bazalgette 9, Lennon 6 (Austin 61, 7); Summerfield 7 (Gibson 68, 7), Crane (c) 7 (68’ Davies 68, 5) Rees 7 (Benz-Solomon 40, 8), Lemon 7 (Duncan 65, 5), Davies 8, Lewis 7, Short 7, Hayler 8 (Gray 69, 5)
Not used: Matthews, Chamberlain
Ealing Trailfinders: Collins 7 (Bodilly 62, 6), Holmes 8, Bird-Tulloch 8, Twelvetrees 9, Kelleher 7, Willis 5.5, Hampson 6 (Williams 59, 6); Goodrick-Clarke 7 (Whyte 68, 6), Willemse 8 (Cornish 70, 7), Alo 8 (Roots 65, 6), De Wee 8, Maddison (c) 8, Montgomery 7, (Newman 56, 7), Harwick 7, Smid 9
Not used: Davidson, Taylor
Referee: Richard Gordon
Attendance: 486
Half-time score: 16-19
Star man: Harry Bazalgette
