FT 26-48 HT 7-24
Attendance 984
Referee Alex Thomas
STAR MAN Jamie Benson London Scottish
Scrums Won/Lost Cambridge 4/0 Scottish 5/0
Line Outs Won/Lost Cambridge 10/0 Scottish 10/2
Penalties Against Cambridge 5 Scottish 8
London Scottish left Grantchester Road with all 5 points as former Cambridge fly half Jamie Benson, of Harlequins, quarter-backed the visitors through a decisive hour that effectively sealed the win.
The visitors raced into an early lead – Matt Wilkinson and Hayden Hyde touching down in quick succession inside five minutes, with Benson wayward off the tee for both scores as the Blood & Sand defence failed to deal with the Scottish threat. Archie Vanes pulled one back from a driving maul, with Louis Grimoldby adding the extras from out wide, and at the 20 minute stage, it still looked very much ‘game on’. But with the hosts failing to turn increased pressure into points, Scottish added two more through William Trenholm and Willam Brown for the try bonus point inside the final 10 minutes of the first half, Benson converting both, and setting up a big second forty.
“It was nice to be back. It was very enjoyable playing against so many familiar faces and it was great to get the result. Cambridge did their best to make it stop-start and play to their strengths and we did out best to keep the ball on the park and play to ours. I think we’re in a good spot – that’s two wins on the bounce and there was a good balance to the game today, in terms of our kicking and running options. We had threats all over the park and I think we used them well.”
Cambridge had shown enough to make the first score of the second half a potential game-changer, but it went to the visitors straight from the kick off, William Joseph carving his way through and over the line. Two minutes later Brown added another. And whilst Benson didn’t have his best game off the tee, when he was replaced in the 58th minute after converting Zach Carr’s try, momentum definitely swung back towards the Blood & Sand.
Pete White’s first act as scrum half replacement was to scorch half the length of the field and set up Grimoldby to cross-kick to the corner for Matt Hema to gather and touch down. Ben Brownlie scored off the back of another driving maul, which Grimoldby converted, and Brownlie again popped up for the bonus point try at the death with Grimoldby again adding the extras. In between, Bry Bradey had added Scottish’ eighth of the afternoon.
Cambridge interim head coach Anthony Allen was pleased with his side’s persistence and driving maul. “It’s clearly disappointing not to get the result we wanted. We’ve got another tough week to come and we’ve got another big game next week. We have to learn and apply those lessons, and start the game better on the score-board”.
Cambridge
Tarrant 6, Glister 6 (Green 66 6), Hema 7, Betteridge 6 (Williams 60 6), Caven 6, Grimoldby 6, R Dawson 6 (White 56 8) ; Nearchou 7 (Ellwood 48 6), Vanes 7 (Brownlie 49 7), Walker 6 (|Bridges 66 6), Bretag-Norris 6 , Baxter 6, Benson 6, Adams 7 (Cardew 60, Dawson 64 6), Bartlett 6
London Scottish
Anderson 7, Hyde 7 (Holmes 52 6), Joseph 7, Bradley 7, Brown 7, Benson 8 (Wilsted 57 6), Law 7 (Murray 68 6); Cave 7 (Prior 71 6), Head 6 (Scott 57 6) , Challenger 6 (Mpiko 57 6), Wilkinson 7, Huis 6 (Spurway 52 6), Davies 7 (Barrett 59 6), Trenholm 7, Carr 7
Scorers:
Cambridge
Tries – Vanes 17, Hema 60, Brownlie 69, 80
Conversions – Grimoldby 18, 70, 80
London Scottish
Tries – Wilkinson 2, Hyde 5, Trenholm 30, Brown 32, 45, Joseph 41, Carr 57, Bradley 78
Conversions – Benson 31, 33, 58 Wilstead 79