Ampthill find their feet to escape from Richmond

AMPTHILL extended their unbeaten run to four games to climb to seventh in the Championship table courtesy of an improved second half performance against Richmond.

Ampthill head coach Paul Turner said: “It was a pretty poor first half performance, we made too many errors and to be up at the break was a bonus. We told the boys at half time to look after the ball better and our set piece started to work in the second half. Our error count got better, we played with our shape and it was a deserved win in the end.”

This was the fourth meeting between these teams this season and the visitors looked motivated to get a result after a draw and two defeats previously and came out firing, putting Ampthill under pressure from the outset and taking only five minutes to open the scoring when Alex O’Meara dived over in the corner.

Ampthill hit back through Ben Harris – fly-half Tom Hardwick spun the ball wide to Tom Bacon who rolled his defender before feeding Harris and he made no mistake from 8m out. Hardwick’s conversion from the touchline gave Ampthill a brief advantage.

Richmond regained the lead five minutes later – playing with advantage the centres combined to gain territory before the forwards took over in the gold zone and David Massey bowled over.

Ampthill got their second try as the first half drew to a close. Awarded a penalty 5m out, Zac Nearchou tapped and when tackled just short Paddy Ryan was

on hand to burrow over. An easy conversion for Hardwick gave the Mob a half time advantage that was probably harsh on the visitors.

The second half saw an improved performance from the hosts who clicked into gear following a third Richmond try, hooker Alex Post scoring from a catch and drive.

Loosehead Nearchou had been denied a first half score, but he got a deserved try on the hour. Wing Ben Cambriani on his return from injury made good territory before an offload from star man Morgan Strong gave the young prop his chance to put Ampthill level.

Samson Adejimi scored Ampthill’s bonus point try soon after – finishing under the posts after sustained forwards pressure for his second try in two games before Fyn Brown completed the scoring.