Morgan hits form to keep Hartpury on right track

HARTPURY’S fragmented performance was enough to see off a hard working Caldy side. Hartpury’s season has gone in waves of success and failure, but they secured a final day win in an error strewn performance.

The first half failed to fire as both teams seemed to make errors before the phase count got above three. The first score did come from an excellent cross field kick from George Barton to find Alex Morgan in space, who stepped inside two defenders to score near the posts.

More mistakes and ill discipline ensued until Caldy decided to knock over a simple penalty to get on the scoreboard. Hartpury then turned up the heat and a searing break by Jack Bates lead to some slick offloads that Harry Tarling took and dived in. Barton again converted to leave the half time score 14-3.

The second half started well for the home side, as a dropped ball in midfield was scooped up by Harry Short who offloaded to Morgan, who again blazed in under the sticks. Conversion added and Hartpury were chasing the bonus point.

Caldy got on the scoreboard next as an offload spilled forward, but with the officials missing it Caldy played on to score. Conversion missed.

A dropped kick off led to an attacking scrum for the visitors. A bobbling catch from Reeves seemed to stun the opposition as he cantered through untouched after he regained the ball. Barton kept up his 100% record 12 Penalties conceded5 9 Lineouts won 16 2 Lineouts lost 1 10 Scrums won 0 2 Scrums lost 0 1 Sin bin 0

Heward 7, Bates 8, Reeves 8, Tarling 7 (Matthews 60, 7), Morgan 9 (McNab 70, 6), Barton 8, Lennon 7 (Jones 60, 6), Wrafter 6 (A Gibson 50, 6), Hunt 7 (Goffey 65, 7), Summerfield 7 (J Rodman 65, 6), Lemon 7 (65, 7) Clarke 7, Davies 7, Short 6 (Taylor 48, 6), Lewis 7 (Holcombe, 60, 7)

Gourlay 7, Royle 7, Cartmill 7, Barker 6, Bibby 9 (Harmes, 46, 7), Hayes 7, Murray 7 (Pilgrim, 7), Rushton 6 (Higginson 43, 7), Hearn 7 (Clarke 56, 7), Jones 7 (Aigbokhae 43, 7), S Dickinson 7, Sanders 6, Crowe 8, Ridgway 7 (Parry 35, 6), JJ Dickinson 7 and the lead stood at 28-8 with 15 minutes to play.

Caldy started to find their feet and Hartpury’s ill discipline gave them all the territory they needed to pressure the home sides line. To Hartpury’s credit the defence held firm. Once they weathered the storm, a break led to Alex Morgan crossing for his hat trick. The conversion went in off the post and Hartpury led 35-13 going into the last few minutes.

Big credit to Caldy as they threw everything they had into the final minutes and scored a deserved try through to leave the final score Hartpury 35-13.

Hartpury DoR John Barnes said: “I’m happy with the five points after a disappointing run of results. The performance though left a lot to be desired with countless errors.”