Double strike from Boulton a real bonus for Hartpury

HARTPURY picked up their first five-try haul in the Championship to see off Nottingham.

They took the lead through an early James Williams penalty after pressure at the scum.

Both he and Nottingham’s Tiff Eden then missed shots in difficult kicking conditions, and Hartpury suffered a double blow when both Williams and wing Henry Purdy were forced off with injury.

Nottingham grabbed a try when a penalty was kicked to the corner and, from the lineout, Eden threaded a precise kick behind the defence for Viliami Hakalo to score.

Hartpury quickly got themselves back on the front foot. Heavy pressure brought a yellow card for visiting skipper Matt Everard, before a driven lineout led to hooker Will Tanner touching down.

Replacement Jacob Perry’s conversion made it 10-7 and the home team turned up the heat.

Phase after phase of punishing drives close to the posts looked likely to crack the Nottingham defence, but the ball was eventually spread to the right where Perry popped up as the extra man to finish. He then converted from wide.

The second half started well for the visitors as Eden carved through the Hartpury midfield to create an unconverted score for Will Millett and the fly-half ’s penalty narrowed the gap to just two points moments later.

Perry’s three-pointer nudged Hartpury back to five points clear, but a well-worked try for Josh Poullett drew the scores level.

To Hartpury’s credit, they regathered and were able to dominate the remainder of the game.

Replacement George Boulton picked up two tries – one from a crossfield kick which he was able to run in and another when he was first to a hack through.

In between, full-back Tom Hudson scored his first for the club, also getting on the end of a kick ahead and finishing powerfully.

Hartpury head coach Mark Cornwell said: “Apart from the start of both halves, I thought we were the better side. There were some very good performances today.”

Nottingham supremo Ian Costello was understandably less happy.

He said: “You can’t give up the penalty count that we did and expect to beat a decent side like Hartpury.”