Hartpury go surging on with seven-try Carnegie rout

HARTPURY made it three wins from four with a comfortable seven-try victory over bottom club Yorkshire Carnegie.

While it was hardly a clinical performance, there were some good tries scored and the Gloucestershire club will go into the next phase of the Championship Cup in decent shape.

“We were pleased to get the win, even though the performance level was slightly down from last week,” said Hartpury’s John Barnes. “We were a bit stop-start, and Yorkshire battled hard, but eventually we got the result we had been targeting.”

The game started frustratingly for the hosts who spent the opening ten minutes deep in the Carnegie half with nothing to show for their dominance.

They did eventually take the lead when No. 8 Seb Nagle-Taylor was unstoppable from the base of a five metre scrum, but a mistake from the restart saw Carnegie immediately draw level.

George Simpson had a kick charged down and Luke Carter had no option other than to carry back over his own line. Yorkshire drove from the base themselves and, after numerous picks, finally scored under the posts.

Hartpury were quickly back in front. This time they worked patiently through the phases after a half-break from centre Luke Eves. It was the forwards who finished again, as prop Dan Murphy burrowed over.

Jack Preece added a third in similar circumstances and, at half time, the only major disappointment for Hartpury was that 21-7 did not reflect the balance of play. Errors in both decision-making and execution were to blame.

Things got better after the restart. A flowing move involving both backs and forwards looked certain to produce another for Murphy, before his progress was halted by a Ryan Shaw high tackle. A yellow card and a penalty try were the outcome.

Nagle-Taylor did get his second after more enterprising rugby, although the best try came for winger Jake Henry, who finished well after being fed a lovely Tiff Eden pass.

Joe Batley added his second in two games in another forward surge, although the final word went to the visitors, who drove over from an attacking lineout.

Yorkshire’s playercoach Joe Ford said: “It’s obviously quite tough at the moment. The lads are fighting and we’re working hard to get to where we want to be.”