John Barnes’ Farewell at Castle Park
By Ed Hartley, at Castle Park
A performance full of heart and grit for Hartpury’s departing director of rugby John Barnes wasn’t enough as the university’s side fell to a 38-22 defeat away against Doncaster Knights.
Hartpury fullback Alex Forrester scored two tries at Castle Park, with replacement loosehead James Gibbons also dotting down and fly-half Harry Bazalgette kicking seven points off the tee.
The defeat may not have been part of the script for Barnesy’s final game in charge before signing off from 14 years heading up the university’s rugby programme, but the performance was.
The outgoing DoR said: “I’m disappointed to lose, of course. Doncaster were certainly the better side today. We were a little bit off it in in most of the areas of the game and Doncaster were really impressive, and fair play they punished us when we made a few errors from kick off and line-outs, so yeah, nothing to complain about.
“I think we were just second best today and Doncaster deserved to win.”
Although the sun had been shining on Sunday morning, the South Yorkshire skies had turned their more typical grey by kick-off, not that it slowed the pace of the game in the early exchanges.
Doncaster’s playmaker Russell Bennett kicking the first points of the afternoon to give the home-side a 3-nil lead on the second minute.
This was followed by Doncaster loosehead prop Logovi’i Mulipola being sin-binned on the fourth minute, and Hartpury capitalised with Bazalgette levelling the score from the tee.
Hartpury took the lead on the 11th minute. Forrester - who was called up from the bench at the last minute due to Alex Morgan picking up an injury in the warm-up – finished out wide after the forwards had drew Donny’s defence narrow with a series of carries.
Bazalgette showed his class on the 14th minute, clearing an over-the-top ball by his opposite number Bennett through volleying it into touch whilst being under significant pressure from the Knights’ attack.
Bennett narrowed the game with another penalty kick, before a 50-22 kick put the home-side in a good position before a quick line-out move led to wing Jordan Olowofela’s inside pass to Telusa Veianu for the fullback to go over the whitewash.
A forward pass ended a Hartpury attack on the 20-minute mark, and it put the Yorkshire side back in the ascendancy before ex-Newcastle Falcons centre George Wacokecoke threw a sneaky pass out the back to Thom Smith, and the flanker puts in a little side-step to open up the space for him to stretch the ball over the line.
A Bazalgette penalty from the halfway line just before the half-hour mark sailed wide, and despite several more attacks, the visitors weren’t able to score any more points before the break.
The second half commenced with scrums drawing attention and Hartpury winning an impressive three scrum penalties over the whole of the game.
However, handler errors proved Hartpury’s undoing while Doncaster were prolific in the loose and scored two tries in the first quarter of an hour of the second-half.
Donny scrum-half Ollie Fox sniped the breakdown, carried into space and set-up No.8 Arthur Green, who side-stepped Forrester and finished under the posts.
Olowofela got the home-side’s bonus-point try with a classy solo effort to break through several red-shirts.
Doncaster’s Veainu was sin-binned just before the hour-mark and Hartpury capitalised with Forrester crossing the whitewash within two minutes of the yellow card period.
But Olowofela became Donny’s creator again with a really hard carry before popping the ball to inside-centre Connor Edwards who re-asserted the home-side’s lead.
Olowofela scored his second try after some lightning quick passes, but Hartpury kept attacking in the final 10 minutes with the hope of getting something out of the game.
Hartpury’s forwards especially refused to give in even with a certain loss looming. In the end James Gibbons powered over the whitewash in the final minute for a mere consolation score.
The perseverance showed exceptional heart which is something departing Director of Rugby John Barnes was proud of in his final match in charge.
Post match interviews:
Post-game, Hartpury fly-half Harry Bazalgette said: “Character at the end is the main positive we can take out of this game. To come back, put some rugby together, get that last try and it doesn't really mean anything in the context of the game or league points, but for something to sort of look back on and say at least we've got that out of the game, its important.
“We struggled with our set piece; lineouts were poor. You can't play a lot of rugby when that's not functioning. We were on the wrong side of some decisions, but, you know, playing rugby is about playing the referee as well, and I'm not one to blame the ref.”
On having a two week break after the festive fixtures, he added: “It's been a long old run. We don't have the luxury of a big squad. This is game 14 - 17 if you include pre-season friendlies - so the body's ready for a break.
“We’re a little bit gutted that we've now got play Ampthill because we obviously would have had a two-week break, but we're straight in on the 11th, so obviously only a seven-day turnaround for us. It's a tough place to go. You never know what you're going to get with them from one week to the next. But we'll play whatever they put in front of us for sure.”
On the departure of John Barnes, Bazalgette added: “What a man. You only got a look at what he's done for this programme. It’s his 14th season, he's the reason that I came to Hartpury, when he reached out man to man.
“You know, he cares about what you do, he cares about you know, he cares about your job, he cares about what you've got going on outside of rugby.
“Given what he's built, it’s a shame we couldn't get a result for him today. But he fully deserves the opportunity that he's got to go and apply his craft at the top tier.”
Speaking afterwards the changes he’s overseen, Barnes said: “Well, there’s been lots of changes. The whole programme at Hartpury is growing. We’ve got 22 teams now and I think having so many current students and alumni playing today and Doncaster had three alumni’s playing as well. So, it's great to see.
“That’s the best thing about Hartpury, the players that come through and go on to play for our championship side, but also other clubs around the country.”
On Hartpury’s future development, he added: “What else needs to be done? I don't know. It's for someone else to take that on.
“I feel I’ve taken it as far as I can and I think I've done a good job and hopefully someone can keep it going, and they just need to be successful both on the pitch and with player development.”
Looking at the wider situation of the future of the Championship, Barnes said: “If you take a look at the league table Ealing have pulled away but from second down to eighth or ninth it's really tight with a couple of points in it.
“On their day anyone could beat anyone you don't often get that in league. So, I think that's the competitiveness of the league is great. I think going into a new tier two next season and going forward it would be a really good league.
“I’m optimistic for Hartpury moving forward, I think we're a top four side with what we’ve produced this year.
“We can win beat Ampthill in a couple of weeks, win our extra game, then we're back in the top four. If they can stay top four that will improve on last year's fifth finish and then keep the progress going.”
Reflecting on his time at Hartpury and any memorable matches, he said: “There’s been a few, when we beat Jersey away for the first time, it brilliant to win that and I think in our National One season when we went unbeaten for 30 games, it was a real standout season for us back in 2016-17.
“I just pray for all the players that come through, keep playing and the coaches that have gone on as well to different clubs.”
Doncaster forward, and try scorer, Thom Smith, gave his reflections on the match with Hartpury, and said: “We've had some tough conversations recently, it's quite clear we're not where we expected or want to be table wise. So, this week we've had a few honest discussions and I think we put out what we wanted to today, so I’m really happy.”
On what it means for the Yorkshire side’s season looking ahead, he said: “We know what potential we've got; we just need to keep executing our plan and we're going to go away from looking at the table now, just go on the process and if we can get that right, then hopefully the fruits will come later.”
Smith also gave his thoughts on what he makes of Hartpury this season, adding: “Well, we literally just spoke about it there, Hartpury are a brilliant team, I think before that result, they were third in the table.
“So, we spoke about that all week, like, how its going to take an eighty-minute performance and it came back at the end like we expected, so, like for us, it's a great result. It was hard against a great Hartpury team.”
Doncaster:
Tries: Telusa Veainu 17, Thom Smith 24, Arthur Green 46, Jordan Olowofela 55, 69, Connor Edwards 63
Conversions: Russell Bennett 47
Penalties: Russell Bennett 2, 16
Drop Goals: N/A
Hartpury:
Tries: Alex Forrester 11, 61, James Gibbons 80
Conversions: Harry Bazalgette 62, 80+1
Penalties: Harry Bazalgette 6
Drop Goals: N/A
Teams (15-9; 1-8):
Doncaster: Telusa Veainu, Jordan Olowofela, George Wacokecoke (Zach Kerr 28), Connor Edwards (Alex Dolly 69), Maliq Holden (Andrew Turner 6-14), Russell Bennett, Ollie Fox; Logovi’i Mulipola (Andrew Turner 52), Fred Davies (George Roberts 60), Joe Jones (Calvin Mitchell 71), Ben Murphy (C), Adam Hopkinson (Josh Williams 6-18, 45), Thom Smith (Archie Smeaton 64), Rhys Tait, Arthur Green (Morgan Strong 47)
Hartpury: Alex Forrester, Brad Denty, Josiah Edwards-Giraud, Robbie Smith (Rory Taylor 67), Ollie Holliday (Wilf McCarthy 71), Harry Bazalgette, Mike Austin (Matty Jones 67); Aristot Benz-Solomon (James Gibbons 63), Will Crane (C) (Ethan Hunt 63), Jon Benz-Solomon (Alex Gibson 68), Dale Lemon (Cameron Cobbett 33), Jack Davies, Sam Lewis, Harry Short (Jarrard Hayler 47), Tom Cowan
Referee: George Selwood (RFU)
Attendance: 1,595
Half-time: 16 – 8 (to Doncaster)
Star Man: Harry Bazalgette (Hartpury)
Stats:
Doncaster:
Penalties conceded: 7
Line-outs won: 5
Line-outs lost: 2
Scrums won: 3
Scrums lost: 1
Sin-bins: 2
Red cards: 0
Hartpury:
Penalties conceded: 11
Line-outs won: 12
Line-outs lost: 4
Scrums won: 5
Scrums lost: 0
Sin-bins: 1
Red cards: 0
