Hartpury overcome horrific conditions for first-ever Premiership Cup home win
by Olly Darcy, at the 4ED Hartpury Stadium
Hartpury dealt superbly with an onslaught of torrential rain and blustery wind to seal their first Premiership Cup win with a 41-26 victory over Cornish Pirates.
Thanks to the awful conditions, the game was moved to the 3G pitch next the stadium, with puddles building up on the surface resulting in a change of pitch with less than an hour before kick-off.
However, it was the home-side who mastered the conditions, and despite the Cornish side scoring 19 unanswered points to start the game, 31 second-half points turned the game in Hartpury’s favour.
A soaking-wet Hartpury attack coach Billy Twelvetrees said: “The gales of Hartpury were out today! But I’m really pleased for the lads. They had a great attitude today, great effort. We showed great character today.”
On how Hartpury turned the game around after half-time, the former British & Irish Lions centre said: “The boys were aware of it. When we went on the pitch, they were definitely aware of it. It's controllable errors that you want to be controlling. They knew what to do, but sometimes, in these conditions, those things can happen.
“They applied what they said they wanted to do and applied it really well, the energy around that was fantastic. You can always say what you're doing, but it's actually applying it in these tough conditions. You don’t want to play too much rugby. The team that has control of the ball more in these conditions will be penalised more.
“Rugby is all about momentum. There are a lot of players in this team, but the team spirit within them is great, and that’s perfect going into the game against Caldy next week in the league.”
Both sides came into their final cup game of the Autumn searching for their first win in the competition, with both losing to Premiership outfits Gloucester and Exeter Chiefs.
After a cagy opening ten minutes where both sides seemed happy to play kick-tennis in the swirling conditions, Pirates were the first to put points on the board through scrum-half Cameron Jones, thanks to a great break away from winger Robin Wedlake-Millecam.
Three minutes later the Cornish side found their second try, full-back Will Trevin finding his away across the whitewash, and after 24 minutes, Wedlake-Millecam added a try of his own, with the Pirates playing superbly in the conditions to go from one end to the other to gain a 19-nil lead.
The home-side suffered with numerous knock-ons and sloppy handling errors.
A vital try for Hartpury came on the half-hour mark, loosehead prop Aristot Benz-Solomon barrelling over to provide a lifeline.
Fly-half Harry Bazalgette added a penalty against his former side to cut the deficit to nine as both teams raced to the changing rooms to seek refuge from the wind and rain.
After the restart Hartpury took the game by the scruff of the neck and within a minute scrum-half Mike Austin gathered a loose ball to run over the try-line unopposed.
The home-side then took the lead thanks to skipper Will Crane linking up with his props to crashing over the try line from the back of a driving maul. With all the initiative coming from the home side, Pirates couldn’t find the control they had in the first half.
That control came thanks to brilliant work from Austin and Bazalgette, with the half-backs working brilliantly to set the tempo and take the game away from the Penzance-based outfit.
Hartpury winger Oliver Holiday chased down a perfectly weighted grubber kick to grab a pivotal try and make it 31-19 on the hour-mark.
But Pirates didn’t go down without a fight, their captain Hugh Bokenham scored from their own driving maul to cut the deficit to just five points with 15 minutes remaining,
Hartpury showed their metal and poise to score three minutes later, No.8 Jarrard Hayler crashing over between the posts for the red shirts fifth try.
Bazalgette capped off his fine game with a 78th-minute penalty, only missing one kick throughout despite the atrocious conditions, and sealing the 41-26 victory.
Its Hartpury’s first-ever home win in the cup, while Pirates difficult season continues with them in Pool E’s wooden spoon position.
Both teams will now focus back on the league, with Hartpury having a home game against Caldy and Pirates welcoming Chinnor to Penzance.
An extremely pleased Hartpury scrum-half Mike Austin said: “I was freezing when I came off! But buzzing with the win. It’s an excellent result. The first cup win, five points, regardless of the conditions, is always great.
“In the first 20 minutes, we just got it wrong in terms of playing too much rugby in our own half. That flipped in the second bit of the first half and in the second half too.
“The message at halftime was just to play the game in the right areas. We made it tricky and played too much rugby given the conditions. But we just needed to play in the right areas, and keep putting them under pressure, and the result speaks for itself. We’re sitting fourth in the league, and a win like that gives us all the momentum going into Caldy next week.”
Cornish Pirates coach Gavin Cattle said there were things to take from the game, despite the end result: “We got off to a very good start, and then we got ourselves into a bit of an arm wrestle coming into halftime, conceding that try.
“I was actually a bit late coming to the pitch for the second half, and as soon I touched the pitch, Hartpury scored that breakaway try, and at that point, we were unable to regather the game. Hartpury deserved the win, but there were a few things that we could have controlled.
“The ball bounced our way in the first half a couple of times. The play stuck, we got some momentum, and we got some nice tries. But as games do, they ebb and flow, and in the second half, momentum went against us. Then, we were putting ourselves under pressure with basic errors, knock-ons, and chatting back to the ref. We sort of imploded at times.
“But this is where this group is. They’re young, they’re learning, it’s frustrating. We do need a win, whether that’s an ugly one or not. Winning matters.
“But we’ve stayed in the fight in most of our games and then lost narrowly in the final minutes. But this is something this team has got. They have grit, they have resilience, they stay in the fight, and today shows they’ve got a good spirit.”
Hartpury:
Tries: Aristot Benz-Soloman 30, Mike Austin 41, Will Crane 53, Oliver Holliday 60, Jarrard Hayler 70
Conversions: Harry Bazalgette 31, 42, 54, 61, 71
Penalties: Harry Bazalgette 39, 78
Drop Goals:
Cornish Pirates:
Tries: Cameron Jones 10, Will Trewin 13, Robin Wedlake-Millecam 22, Huge Bokenham 63
Conversions: Iwan Jenkins 11, 23, Bruce Houston 64
Penalties:
Drop Goals:
Team line-ups (15-9; 1-8):
Hartpury: Alex Morgan, Brad Denty, Jack Johnson (Josiah Edwards-Giraud 68), Robbie Smith (Morgan Adderly-Jones 65), Ollie Holiday, Harry Bazalgette, Mike Austin (Matty Jones 78); Aristot Benz-Soloman (Archie McArthur 57), Will Crane © (Ethan Hunt 57), Jon Benz-Soloman (Joe Rees 74), Cam Cobbett (Carn Richards-Farr 65), Jack Davies, Sam Lewis (Deian Gwynne 65), Harry Short, Jarrard Hayler
Unused: N/A
Cornish Pirates: Will Trewin, Robin Wedlake-Millecam, Matt McNab, Charlie McCaig, Arthur Relton (Iwan Price-Thomas 62), Iwan Jenkins (Bruce Houston 63), Cam Jones (Dan Hiscocks 55); Billy Young (Oisin Michel 63), Sol Moody, James French (Jay Tyack 63), Charlie Rice (Matt Cannon 63), Eoin O’Connor, Josh King, Will Gibson (Tomiwa Agbongbon 40), Hugh Bokenham (C)
Unused: Harry Hocking
Referee: Charles Gayther (RFU)
Attendance: 846
Half-time: 10 - 19 (to Pirates)
Star man: Harry Bazalgette (Hartpury)
Stats:
Hartpury:
Penalties conceded: 5
Line-outs won: 7
Line-outs lost: 0
Scrums won: 4
Scrums lost: 0
Sin-bins/Reds: 0/0
Cornish Pirates:
Penalties conceded: 12
Line-outs won: 6
Line-outs lost: 1
Scrums won: 4
Scrums lost: 2
Sin-bins/Reds: 0/0
