Hartpury hammer lowly London Scottish
By Rhys Anderson & Luke Jarmyn, at 4ED Stadium
A PHYSICALLY dominant Hartpury pack proved decisive as the university’s side put error-strewn London Scottish to the sword and earned a bonus-point victory which lifts them back into the Champ’s play-off places.
The six-try win on Easter Saturday, buoyed by fly-half Harry Bazalgette’s return to form from the tee, brings Hartpury’s five-game losing streak to an end at a crucial time with just four league fixtures remaining.
Hartpury kicked off towards the car park end in blistering conditions with the wind in their favour for the first period.
The all-red hosts used the blusts to try running the ball early, moving it through the hands but not finding the gains to match.
Blindside flanker Jarrard Hayler found himself in trouble on the sixth minute after a dangerous tackle landed him in the bin for 10 minutes, and ‘pury had to climb an uphill battle with the one-man disadvantage early on.
Despite being a man down, the reds managed the next 10 minutes well against their dark blue shirted visitors, even snatching the first points of the fixture on the quarter-hour mark through a Bazalgette penalty kick just in front of the posts following a Scottish offside infringement.
Exiles prop Ntinga Mpiko was unfortunately helped off the field after only 24 minutes, having pulled his hamstring lifting in a lineout, leading to a pause in play.
The first try of the match was scored on the half-hour mark by prop Jono Benz-Salomon after Hartpury had a lineout five metres out in the left corner. The original lineout drive broke down, but after a couple of phases, Benz-Salomon dived over the whitewash by the left corner flag.
The university side got their second try before half-time to extend their lead as hooker Ethan Hunt bundled over the tryline by the left corner, and Bazalgette’s second successful conversion made it a 17-point game at the interval.
Costly mistakes held Scottish back in the first-half, with nine penalties against and three lost lineouts; it was hard for the visitors to gain any sort of momentum.
The wind quietened down for the second-half, which played into Hartpury’s favour having benefited from it through the first 40 minutes.
The second-half started in similar fashion with the Gloucestershire side dominating, and Benz-Salomon scored his second try within five minutes of the restart when the solid tighthead muscled under a defender from close range by the left post.
Hartpury kept ticking over the scoreboard. Just over five minutes later, inside centre Max Knight broke the Exiles line with a dummy pass before passing to scrum half Sam Allford who darted towards the left corner flag to score.
As the game ticked over the hour-mark minutes later, Knight showed his magic again, breaking through the visitors line once again and this time handing it off to outside-centre Robbie Smith who was waiting on his right shoulder to receive the ball and run under the posts to dot down, making the scoreline 38-0.
London Scottish finally got on the scoreboard with 11 minutes left to play as back-row Lewis Barrett crashed over from short range by the left upright.
Despite that blip, Hartpury finished off in style as ever-present openside Harry Short scored their sixth try to seal the game, spinning as he went over the try line by the right post but managing to place the ball on the floor.
Bazalgette went perfect off the tee, converting all six tries and the penalty kick on the 15th minute to cement an emphatic victory over the struggling London Scottish side.
Stats:
|
Hartpury RFC |
London Scottish |
|
|
7 |
Penalties conceded |
16 |
|
12 |
Line-outs won |
7 |
|
6 |
Line-outs lost |
4 |
|
8 |
Scrums won |
8 |
|
0 |
Scrums lost |
0 |
|
1 |
Sin-bins |
0 |
|
0 |
Red cards |
0 |
Hartpury RFC: Brad Denty (Alex Forrester 73), Charlie Powell (Josh Field 76), Robbie Smith, Max Knight (Keir Clark 64), Ollie Holliday, Harry Bazalgette, Sam Allford; Louie Trevette (Harrison Bellamy 54), Ethan Hunt (George Knowles 68), Jono Benz-Salomon (Alex Gibson 61), Cameron Cobbett (Peter Paramore 73), Jack Davies (C), Jarrard Hayler (Harry Taylor 58), Harry Short, Tom Worts
Tries: Jono Benz-Salomon 30, 45, Ethan Hunt 37, Sam Allford 52, Robbie Smith 63, Harry Short 72
Conversions: Harry Bazalgette 31, 38, 46, 53, 64, 73
Penalties: Harry Bazalgette 15
Sin Bin: Jarrard Hayler 6
London Scottish: Fraser Honey, Noah Ferdinand, Solodrau Radianirova (Alec Lloyd-Seed 53), Harry Sheppard (Will Simonds 54), Murray Bellis, Tom Wilstead, Jonny Law (Jake Murray 53); Will Prior (Vaughan Bentley 48), Harry Clayton (Cameron Doak 65), Ntinga Mpiko (Osman Dimen 24), Matt Wilkinson (Declan Johnson 60), Theo Vukasinovic (Marijn Huis 60), Bailey Ransom, Lewis Barrett, Oliver Duncan
Tries: Lewis Barrett 69
Conversions: Wilstead 70
Referee: Charlie Gayther (RFU)
Attendance: 720
Half-Time: 17-0 (to Hartpury RFC)
Star Players: Max Knight (Hartpury RFC)
Reaction:
Celebrations all round all comfortable victory
By Rhys Anderson & Luke Jarmyn, at 4ED Stadium
THERE was plenty to celebrate after Hartpury produced a near perfect six try victory over Champ struggles London Scottish to get back to winning ways.
Alongside Max Knight’s selfless man of the match performance, tighthead prop forward Alex Gibson came on to earn his 100th cap in red while Harry Bazalgette put a sub-par showing in south Yorkshire behind him to score seven from seven kicks off the tee.
Hartpury director of rugby Mark Cornwell was pleased to get back to winning ways after going five games without a victory, and stated they “needed” it due to the nature of their recent performances.
Cornwell said: “It’s something that we needed because we’ve had a few weeks of low confidence, average or below average performances and we needed a bit of confidence after a testing 15 minutes we found some form.
“I didn’t think it was a 45-point game in the end actually, it didn’t feel like we were all over them all game, but the boys did well. I’m not complaining, I’ll take it of course,”
Blindside flanker Jarrard Hayler was sin-binned after jut six minutes after a dangerous tackle which led to referee Charlie Gayther conferring with the touch judge closest to the incident.
“The situation where Jarrard got binned, he should never have been in that situation, we struggled to click, to find the patterns, to find the connections,” Cornwell said.
“The last pass wasn’t sticking, we lost a few lineouts in crucial areas, I didn’t expect to go down to 14, but we took a bit of time to get some confidence and it clicked in the end.”
Despite the first try not coming until half an hour in, Cornwell added: “The way the game was going, I felt like we would get on top, but it was a case of doing the simple things really well, and trying to eliminate the errors that crept into our game, but we got there in the end.
“The message at half time was to try and avoid giving London Scottish easy penalties where they could kick to the touchline with the wind, but we got a bit fortunate with the wind because it was quite strong first half, but died off in the second, and Scottish didn’t have that as an advantage, but I just didn’t want to give them easy yardage.
“I also thought that they were ill-disciplined at the breakdown, so we needed to play, then we scored two tries in the second half on the back of that.”
During the second half, inside centre Max Knight set up two tries with his ability to break the London Scottish line.
On his playmaking ability, Cornwell said: “Max Knight was a threat in the first half, he was taking it to the line, he was there as an offload, off the floor and even out the tackle, so I said to the boys at half-time that we need to use Max, and he came good in the second half with a couple of good tries through Max’s breaks.
Hartpury travel to Caldy next week as they look to cement their place in the playoff places.
“We all know Caldy away is a tough place to go, last week they pushed Ealing all the way; we’ve always been quite god at Caldy, but it’s a tough place to go and it’s a long day.”
Hartpury prop Alex Gibson made his 100th cap in his side’s win over London Scottish on Saturday afternoon.
On his achievement, he said: “It’s amazing, and to be honest 10 years ago I never thought I’d get to this, it’s an amazing achievement and I’m proud.
“Hartpury means a lot to me, it’s been a massive part of my life, the people you meet here are really special; the lads, the coaches, it’s a unique place with some unbelievable people to be around.”
Gibson came on as a replacement on the hour mark, and instantly was involved, fighting at the breakdown in order for Max Knight to find a gap for a line break, which led to Robbie Smith’s try.
“We have good breakdown threats with Harry Short and Cam Cobbett in the back row, and we did well not giving away pens, but getting involved at the breakdown and being able to kick to the corners and get field position from those situations.
“We’re very happy with the penalty count, 16 to seven, it’s not often you get below double digits, it’s going to give us a massive advantage if we can do that.”
On playing with the man of the match Max Knight, Gibson added: “Max has been unbelievable in the last couple of weeks and has been on the fringes, and with Ollie unfortunately missing out this week, he had the chance and he took it with both hands.
“It’s good to have that depth, when one goes out, another comes in, and we don’t miss too much quality because we’ve got quality players all around.”
Looking ahead to the final few games, Gibson said: “No game is a give me in this league, so five points today is a really good start after a few iffy results, four more games to go and if we can keep putting in performances like that, it should put us in good stead to finish strong and assess after those four games.
“There’s always things to get better at, and even though we won 45-7, there’s still things to work on.”
