A first half try blitz from London Scottish looked to have sealed the points early doors as Cambridge disintegrated in the spring sunshine at the RAG.
Cambridge interim head coach Anthony Allen was disappointed with his side going four scores down so quickly but was pleased with their attacking intent, despite their error count. “We could have scored more but that’s the tale of our season. We do something good then clock off and lose concentration. The boys are working hard but it’s not always paying off. We got back into the game by half time then conceded way too many tries from distance in the second half”.
The hosts racked up the try bonus point in 20 minutes, the first from close range by Matt Wilkinson with Josh Bellamy adding the extras. Ioan Rees Rhys Davies galloped in for the second, the Cambridge 22 opening up for him, but Bellamy’s conversion struck the upright. Zach Carr struck the third from range which was converted. Then Hayden Hyde was the eventual recipient of the fourth as the visitors failed to score in the Scottish far corner, the ball made its way back to the middle of the 22 and was then hacked on for three Scots to outpace the Cambridge defence and Carr got the final touch.
Whilst that 20 minutes or so was fairly representative of a wretched few weeks for Cambridge the comeback was also well within their collective capabilities. Zac Nearchou finished off a solid attack with Eli Caven adding the extras. Ben Brownlie finished off a driving maul. Then Pete White made ground to take a pass from Joey Green, who’d run three quarters of the length of the pitch, to touch down.
After half time, though, Scottish re-asserted themselves and struck twice in quick succession. Hooker Austin Morris came up from the maul holding the ball. Jonny Law ran almost the length of the field to score another – then repeated the feat four minutes later to put the game to bed on the hour.
Cambridge – and Caven – weren’t done. The winger burgled the ball in the Scottish 22 to touch down and converted his own try for the bonus point. Hyde struck again. Matt Dawson added a fifth for the Blood & Sand and Stephen Kerins completed the scoring for the hosts.
Bryan Redpath was pleased with his sides efforts on a very warm, windy day, especially that first 20 minutes. “It was a really weird one – we scored a couple of scrappy ones in that period and went 24-nil up. But we knew Cambridge are a good attacking side and were expecting them to come back at us. We were really clinical in the second half. I like Cambridge – they’re a good club and they’re fighting hard. Both sides will be disappointed by bit of that game and on the other side of that there was also some good stuff for both sides. I’m delighted for the boys”.
Teams
London Scottish
Lloyd-Seed 8, Brown 8, Hyde 8, McCallum 7 (Sheppard 41 7), Zheng 7 (McMillan 63 6), Bellamy 8, Law 9; Clarke 7 (Prior 63 7), Wallis 8 (Scott 70 6), Mpiko 7 (Ashworth 70 6), Wilkinson, Carr, Trenholm 7 (Barrett 66 6), Ransom 7 (Kerins 63 7), Davies 8 (Marshall 54 7)
Cambridge
Green 6 (Betteridge 58 6), Skelcey 6, Williams 7 (Gaffan 77), Hema 7 (Hanks 63 6), Caven 8, Tarrant 6, White 8; Nearchou 7 (Ellwood 46 6), Brownlie, Bridges 6 (Murphy 54 6), Bretag-Norris 7, Friend 6 (Baxter 46 6) Sylvester 7, Rees 7, Adams 7 (Dawson 58 7)
Scorers
London Scottish
Tries – Wilkinson 4, Davies 10, Carr 19, Hyde 22, Wallis 45, Law 53, 57, Brown 62, Hyde 69, Kerins 76
Conversions – Bellamy 11, 23 Lloyd-Seed 58, 63, 70
Cambridge
Tries – Nearchou 28, Brownlie 36, White 38, Caven 64, Dawson 73
Conversions – Caven 29,36, 65, 74
HT 24-19 FT 60-33
Scrums won 1/3
Scrums lost 0/2
Line outs won 10/10
Line outs lost 1/1
Penalties against 8/12
Attendance 400
Referee – Hamish Grant
STAR MAN – JONNY LAW London Scottish