Hartpury 20 Nottingham 32
Not used: N/A
Referee: Mike Hudson
Attendance: 745
Half-time: 17 – 5 (to Hartpury)
Star man: Thomas Mathews (Hartpury) / Sam Hollingsworth (Nottingham)
Report:
Headline: Nottingham end their Hartpury hoodoo
By LUKE JARMYN
HARTPURY saw a fantastic first-half display undone as Nottingham crucially utilized their replacements to produce an impressive comeback.
Fly-half Harry Bazalgette kicked 10 points and linked up impressively well with playmaking 12 Thomas Mathews to give the home-side a real edge throughout the first 40 minutes, with openside Jarrard Hayler and outside centre Robert Smith getting over the whitewash.
A cold Friday night under the lights in Gloucestershire seem to have an impact as it took over 10 minutes for this fixture to spark into life.
But when it did, it was Hartpury who got ahead. The home-side won a penalty at the break-down, kicked to the corner and Hayler splintered off a rolling maul to score.
Nottingham looked to strike back through the league’s leading try scorer David Williams but couldn’t execute, the winger beating two defenders on the blindside before being penalised for a double movement inches from the line.
Hartpury grabbed a second try as a great read by the home-side’s 9-10-12 linked up in the midfield saw the ball drop to Smith, who raced over the try-line.
The green-and-whites narrowed the score with hooker TJ Harris scoring under a bundle of bodies.
But Hartpury fought straight back, extending their lead with Bazalgette grabbing a penalty-kick on the stroke of half-time.
Nottingham made several changes just after the break, and started really strong. Some great work down the short side set Williams free with the winger diving over in the corner.
Bazalgette executed another penalty kick, before Hayler saw yellow for a period of Hartpury repeat offending on the hour-mark.
The Archers capitalized, replacement fly-half Sam Hollingsworth off the tee before outside centre Marcus Ramage scored a solo-effort from inside his own half to dot down under the posts.
Fullback Ellis Mee slid over from close range to put the visitors ahead for the first time.
Hartpury fought back, but it was to no avail and in the final minutes, some clever Nottingham interplay off a scrum saw Archers’ fly-half Sam Hollingsworth score in the corner to complete the comeback and an excellent performance off the bench.
Nottingham head coach Craig Hammond was delighted with it being the club’s first-ever win at Hartpury, having lost on their last six visits to The College ground.
He said: “Hartpury didn’t allow us to play in the first-half, we had some hard words at half-time and the boys turned it around as we showed some of our fast-brand of rugby, which was great to see.
“We we’re on a 40-minute mission to get our first-ever Hartpury win, and I’m proud of the effort. It was a complete switch; our whole bench made a huge difference, Sam Hollingsworth changed the game, and it shows how far we’ve come as we perhaps couldn’t do that last season.”
Hartpury: I Jones 5, Hatherway 5 (Denty 64, 6), Smith 6, Mathews 8, Reeves 5, Bazalgette 8 (Adderley-Jones 73, 5), Austin 6 (M Jones 66, 5); A Benz-Salomon 6 (Summerfield 66, 5), Crane (C) 6, Rees 5 (J Benz-Salomon 45, 5), Lemon 5 (Eite 56, 5), J Davies 5, Lewis 5, Hayler 5, Gray 5
Not used: F Davies, Cobbett.
Nottingham: Mee 7, Williams 8, Ramage 7, Woodward 7, Graham 7 (Stapley 64, 5), Bunting 6 (Hollingsworth 50, 9), Stronge 6 (Goodwin 60, 7); Owen 5 (Van der Flier 52, 6), Harris 6 (Dickinson 45, 6), Richardson 6 (Valentine 52, 5), Ferreira 6, Joussian 7 (Shine 59, 5), Maloney-Fiola 7, Tweedy © 6, Cox 6 (Cherry 48, 6).
Stats:
Hartpury:
Penalties conceded: 12
Line-outs won: 6
Line-outs lost: 1
Scrums won: 5
Scrums lost: 0
Sin-bin/red: 1/0
Nottingham:
Penalties conceded: 11
Line-outs won: 7
Line-outs lost: 0
Scrums won: 7
Scrums lost: 0
Sin-bin/red: 0/0
