12-man Hartpury secure six try victory
By Luke Jarmyn
HARTPURY survived three late yellow cards in a highly charged encounter against Caldy to secure their third league win in a row and continue their impressive start to the season which sees them sit fourth in the table
Hooker Ethan Hunt, loosehead Archie McArthur, fullback Alex Morgan and tighthead Joe Rees all crossed the whitewash for John Barnes’ side in a scrappy fixture marred by a first-half brawl and six sin-bins.
Barnes, Hartpury’s director of rugby, said afterwards: “I’m pleased with the win but that wasn’t a very good game of rugby, the ill-discipline from both sides was evident.
“It made it a stop-start game with lots of yellow cards and stoppages, so it wasn’t the best spectacle.
“It’s an important win for us and there were some positives, our forwards laid a great platform with their physicality and Josiah Edwards-Giraud showed why he deserved a starting spot in both attack and defence.”
In surprisingly mild conditions given the damage Storm Bert caused to the pitch last weekend, it was Hartpury who dominated early on, utilising their scrum and pinning Caldy deep in their own half.
From a line-out 15 metres out, Hartpury recycle the ball quickly off the maul for Hunt to dive over the try line.
The home-side’s forwards were imperious, another catch-and-drive move led to the reds being awarded a penalty try with Caldy hooker Ollie Hearn yellow-carded on the 16th minute for trying to stop the maul illegally.
Hartpury capitalised; McArthur bundled over with Harry Short in support but Caldy pulled one back with a magical Mike Cartmill head-butt setting-up veteran Nic Royle to slide over.
Some quick passes by Harry Bazalgette and Edwards-Giraud set up Morgan to dash over on the right for the bonus-point try, before being sin-binned for choice words leading to a 20-man brawl.
As the early Winter nightfall set-in, and under poor light, Ravers’ orange shirts stood out after half-time but they were on the back foot and a great piece of Hartpury running play led to a penalty try and blindside Sam Olyott seeing yellow for a late tackle.
At the hour-mark Caldy were in the ascendancy and as a well worked line-out broke-up hooker Matt Gallagher shimmied and side-stepped to score between the sticks.
Not long after entering the fray, replacement Rees dotted down from a line-out move on the 69th minute but then it was all Ravers.
Wing Oli Holliday was sin-binned four minutes later for stopping a quick throw-in, and the ensuing line-out in the far-left corner saw Rees yellow carded for illegally stopping a maul and Caldy awarded a penalty try.
Wing Jack Johnson was sin-binned for a high tackle with Gallagher bundling over by the left post for Caldy’s bonus point try.
Hartpury head coach Mark Cornwell gave a measured post-match assessment, and said: “We had more control in the game than the scoreline suggests, which is slightly frustrating.
“But I didn’t know what went on towards the end of the game with the three yellow cards, which is certainly something we’ll have to watch back over.”
“We’re a side that strive on good discipline and we’ve had very few yellow cards this year so to get four in one game, I think the best thing I’m comfortable saying if I’m a little bit disappointed and we’ll have to look at why a side like Hartpury gets four yellow cards.”
“On the positives, we had some really good attacking aspects to the game, the pitch was fine after the rain from Storm Bert the week before which was ridiculous and the most rain, I’ve ever experienced on a rugby pitch at least.”
Hartpury club captain Will Crane shared his reflections on what he termed as “a scrappy game”.
The skipper said: “We started really well, scored a couple of tries through some good homework we had done in the week and where we had identified our target areas.
“We found how we liked to play and that gave us that really strong 28-5 lead we had at half-time.
“Then Caldy did really well after the restart to be fair, they got some control. Caldy turned it into a game they quite like, making it scrappy and getting their scrum and maul into the game.
“We fell into Caldy’s hands at time in the second half, but we were still quite clinical when we had the opportunity in their 22-metre area which was crucial.
“For us, it wasn’t the prettiest of games but it’s a good five point win and it keeps our momentum rolling, and that’s really important coming up to Christmas with the likes of Coventry and Ampthill away coming up.”
Giving a Caldy perspective, the away-side’s outside centre Connor Wilkinson said: “We had a good second-half and it’s important for us to get a bonus-point away from home but just unfortunate that we weren’t able to start as strongly as we finished.”
Stats:
Hartpury:
Penalties conceded: 10
Line-outs won: 12
Line-outs lost: 0
Scrums won: 6
Scrums lost: 0
Sin-bins: 4
Caldy:
Penalties conceded: 9
Line-outs won: 9
Line-outs lost: 0
Scrums won: 6
Scrums lost: 0
Sin-bins: 2
Hartpury:
Tries: Ethan Hunt 11, penalty try 17, 56, Archie McArthur 22, Alex Morgan 27, Joe Rees 69
Conversions: Harry Bazalgette 12, 23, 28
Penalties:
Drop Goals:
Caldy:
Tries: Nic Royle 23, Matthew Gallagher 64, 79, penalty try 74
Conversions: Lewis Barker 80
Penalties:
Drop Goals:
Team line-ups (15-9; 1-8):
Hartpury: Alex Morgan, Jack Johnson, Josiah Edwards-Giraud (Bradley Denty 56), Robert Smith (Morgan Adderly-Jones 65), Oli Holliday, Harry Bazalgette, Mike Austin (Matt Jones 65); Archie McArthur (James Gibbons 70), Ethan Hunt (Will Crane 60), Jon Benz-Salomon (Joe Rees 60), Cameron Cobbett, Jack Davies © (Carn Richards-Farr 70), Sam Lewis, Harry Short (Evan Minto 60), Jarrard Hayler
Not used: N/A
Caldy: Alex Wills, Nic Royle (Matt Kilcourse 63), Connor Wilkinson, Michael Barlow (Joe Bedlow 63), Michael Cartmill, Lewis Barker, Oli Wynn (Joe Murray 63); Monty Weatherby (Adam Aigbokhae 55), Oli Hearn 5 (Matt Gallagher 55), Nathan Rushton (Ryan Higginson 55), Freddie Stevenson, Joe Sproston (Will Riley 58), Sam Olyott (Callum Ridgway 67), Tristan Woodman, JJ Dickinson ©
Not used: N/A
Referee: Mike Hudson (RFU)
Attendance: 902
Half-time: 28 – 05 (to Hartpury)
Star man: Joshua Edwards-Giraud (Hartpury) / Tristan Woodman (Caldy)
