Nagle-Taylor score kills off Knights’ late fightback

HARTPURY enjoyed their final home outing of 2019 with a four-try win over an injury-depleted Doncaster Knights.

“It was nice to finally win a Cup game,” said Hartpury director of rugby John Barnes.

“We’ve scored four tries and brought some guys back from injury, so it’s been a good day for us. They performed well and competition for places is exactly what we want.”

Hartpury, who were much changed after last week’s trip to Jersey, had first use of the wind and opened up a good lead by the break with the boot of fly-half Joshua Bragman instrumental.

Both sides found handling difficult early on and the set pieces were equally scruffy, with most of the early scrummages resulting in some intervention by referee Ben Russell.

It was from Doncaster indiscipline that Bragman was able to give Hartpury the advantage with three well-struck penalties in the first 25 minutes.

First-half points were important, given the strength of the breeze, and it seemed that Hartpury may miss their chance until they put together a good attack in the 30th minute.

Dan Koster made inroads through the visiting defence before quick ball gave Bragman a simple finish, which he converted himself from the touchline.

Hartpury were untidy in dealing with a loose ball on their own 22 as the break approached and a kick behind the home defence gave Tyson Lewis a simple finish.

The conversion was missed by Sam Olver, but his opposite number showed no such generosity on the stroke of half-time as another penalty made it Bragman 22 – Knights 5.

The second half was played at a high tempo as the Knights tried to find a way back into the match.

Replacement Robbie Smith started a Hartpury attack that almost went the length, before the home forwards finally got in on the scoring with Jack Preece finishing a lineout drive.

Doncaster responded in the same fashion a few minutes later, through Colin Quigley, and Olver was on target with his conversion.

Smith got his first try for Hartpury in the 63rd minute after Mike Wilcox made the extra man on the narrow side.

Hartpury should have been cruising, but a Knights rally saw Rory Pitman stretch out to score from close range, minutes after a lineout was worked back to the narrow side for Lewis to pick up his second.

A nervous finish was averted by an interception score from man-of-thematch, Seb Nagle-Taylor.