Hartpury land first victory of season – and it’s so sweet!
HARTPURY gained revenge for their opening round hammering by old rivals Loughborough on Wednesday with a hard fought 15-7 win cheered on by 450 passionate fans.
A miserly first half yielded few scoring opportunities but Hartpury entered the sheds with a slender 3-0 lead, courtesy of Charlie Chapman.
The fiercely contested game continued to stifle opportunity but Loughborough took the lead in the 56th minute thanks to a Jon Hughes try which was ably converted by Tom Ffitch.
They were to be their last purple patches though and quickfire tries from Tom Pashley and Maliq Holden with another Chapman kick put paid to Loughborough’s ambitions as Hartpury finally registered their first home win of the season.
Staying in the West Country,
Bath continued to creak into life at the expense of a Durham side on the slide.
In customary home form fashion, Bath raced into an early 19-0 lead with a Will Hughes brace and an Austin Hay try. Will Flinn added one conversion and Durham had a mountain to climb.
They scaled it by the break. Tries from Joe Duffy and captain Justin Clegg sandwiched a penalty try and the sides were all square with 40 minutes left.
Last week Aaron James bemoaned his side’s insistence on making hard work for themselves. He would soon be experiencing deja vu as Ben Fowles took the lead for Durham with Tom Catterick on target for the extras.
Bath over the last few weeks have shown themselves to be a side laced with resolve. Once more, they went to the well. Flinn eroded the deficit with a penalty, then a conversion as Chris Barry charged over. With the game in the balance, Flinn added another three-pointer and the Brothers held out for a 34-26 win. Nottingham Trent, dismantled by Exeter in Round 10 showed glimmers of improvement but again finished on the losing side against a well drilled Cardiff Met.
Harry Graham was a livewire for the home side throughout and justly touched down twice to allow Will Sutton to convert both but the Archer’s combination of power and precision out wide proved too much.
Two tries, two conversions and two penalties gave Tom Morgan a personal haul of 20 points, to supplement tries from Luke Northmore, Ben Holt and Tom Benjamin who also slotted a conversion. Rampaging wrecking ball Alex Dombrandt was exceptional as Met ran out 14-37 winners.
The most anticipated fixture of the round undoubtedly took place in the North East on Friday. Last time
Northumbria locked horns with Exeter they were pipped in an astonishing 53-50 match at Topsham.
The Bullocksteads crowd were expectant and the men in black duly blew Exeter away in the opening skirmishes to take a 15-0 lead through Harry Robinson and Will Muir tries plus Josh Bragman kicks.
Exeter responded. George Gosling crashed over before the break and Sal M’boge made it a one-point game with Landray kicking true once more.
Muir reopened the gap with his second but when Exeter were awarded a penalty try, they led for the first time 21-20 entering the home straight. Step up Will Muir…the full-back completed his hat-trick to spark jubilant scenes in the final play to deliver a 27-21 victory to Northumbria.