Exeter back up Hartpury win with bonus over Loughborough
EXETER continued their title march with a comfortable 31-5 victory over Loughborough at Topsham.
The champions elect, who saw off Hratpury last week, were made to work for it with just a converted Joe Elderkin try in the first half.
In the second 40 Matt Blee and Olly White tries opened up a 17 point lead for the home side before Max Hill spun his way across the paint to get Loughborough’s only points.
Sam Morley was uncharacteristically wayward from the tee but it mattered not as Ralph Marchant and Charlie Davies tries sealed the game and the bonus point for EURFC.
Hartpury are the only side that can conceivably wrestle the Cham- pionship from EURFC’s grasp after beating Cardiff Met 42-29 at Gillman’s Ground.
The game was played on the 4G with the home side quickest to adapt. Harry Holland’s opener was swiftly followed by a Max Clementson try and with Nathan Chamberlain dead eye from the tee, Pury led 17-0.
Met roared back with 22 unanswered points. George Gladding and Chris Lewis were both beneficiaries of fizzed Russell Bennett passes before Eduardo Balocco pounced on his own charge down to take the lead.
Tries from Robbie Smith, Ervin Muric and Jack Johnson swung the scoreboard unassailably in Pury’s favour but Met left with a bonus point rumbling over in the final play. MOTM Chamberlain ended the night with a personal haul of 17 points.
Leeds Beckett continued their resurgence by hammering Northumbria 50-17. Beckett have scored 223 points on their five game streak and were rampant on Wednesday scoring tries through Kieran Davies, Johan Visser, Will Lewin, Chester Duff(2) plus a scrum penalty try while Davies, Conor Lloyd and Steffan James shared 18 kicked points.
Northumbria’s tries from Lucas Titherington and Joe Pickering(2) were mere crumbs of consolation on a sobering night that saw their own four game streak brought to an emphatic halt.
Meanwhile their North-East neighbours were on the right end of a resounding 48-3 win over Nottingham Trent who’s season is slipping away in alarming fashion.
The tight 5-3 scoreline after half an hour served to be the work of an unreliable narrator with the remainder of the game telling the story of a gulf in class. By the time Durham were awarded a penalty try when Cecil MacCarthy was yellow carded the result was beyond doubt thanks to scores from Paddy McDuell, Jacob Collin, Freddie Davies, Fitz Harding, Chris Johnston, Luke Chadwick and Myles Rawstron-Rudd. Had the latter packed his kicking boots the score would have been even bleaker for Trent who registered just a lowly Will Sutton penalty.
It was tries galore at the STV as Bath smoked Cardiff 53-17.
Yellow cards to Cardiff ’s Tom Wilson and Rhod Wall within ten minutes of each other impacted heavily the result as Bath ran in 7 tries from Hugo Stiles, Jack Kenningham, Tom Doughty(2), Ethan Hutt, Will Partington and Chris Barry.
Partington’s sublime kicking added a further 18 points to The Brother’s tally while Cardiff ’s Owen William’s brace and James Davies’ effort proved to be in vain as they fell one try short of a bonus.