Street-smart Ampthill came away from Grantchester Road with all five points in a proper arm-wrestle of a local derby as Cambridge, with 14 players on club debut, struggled to gel in their first Champ outing after a long summer of recruitment and integration.
Dave Ward’s side fronted up, strung out their defence and forced the hosts into too many errors, exacerbated by the conditions, and scored 7 tries in the process, starting with a perfunctory dive over in the corner by Sevanaia Kava, converted by Louis Grimoldy on his return to the club he captained last season.
Hooker Seb Smith profited from an overthrown line for the second, Grimoldby again successful from the tee, but it was a day for scoring against former sides as Jake Ellwood opened the season’s account for the hosts with a storming finish, converted by Eli Caven.
Efan Jones waltzed through for the Mob’s third, Grimoldby rubbing salt in the wounds for three from three. But Dylan Irvine’s debut score reduced the deficit ahead of half time and with the wind, a Cambridge comeback looked likely. It didn’t happen – Totoa Auvaa brought up the TBP within 5 minutes of the restart. Barney Merrett added a fifth and Sam Kildunne raced in for the sixth.
After a lengthy stoppage for an injury to Cambridge back row Sam Asotasi, who’d barely arrived off the bench, the hosts rallied with two more debut scores from Dan Eckersley and John Stewart as a result of driving mauls.
The final word though went to Samson Adejimi – and Ward was pleased with his side’s start to the season, saying, “We’re trying to pride ourselves on our defence this season. Cambridge are a decent side and they’ll upset a few teams this season and we didn’t want to be one of them. We showed a lot of defensive effort and energy, and scored some nice tries off the back of that. We didn’t think that we had a big enough lead at half-time. We won the toss, took the aughwind, and built a controlled platform for the second half.”
New Cambridge Head Coach Craig Newby was disappointed with the result but not all of the performance. “Ampthill taught us some lessons in terms of game management – we had a plan, couldn’t execute it, and they had a really experienced 9 and 10 that outplayed us. We’ll look at the decisions we made during the week as we move towards Doncaster next week. The Champ is dog-eat-dog and we’re going to need to learn those lessons quickly but that’s in our hands.”
Teams
Cambridge
Mausia 6, Glister 6, Reweti 6, Rokodrava 6, Caven 6, Annand 6 (Lumley 65 6) White 6 (Dawson 56 7) Ellwood 7 (Nearchou 49 7 )Irvine 7 (Stewart 49 7), Walker 7 (Boal 68 6), Lawrence 6 (Asotasi 49, Thomas 56 7), McCay 7, Fulford 6, Eckersley 7, Adams 7 (Baxter 78)
Ampthill
Barton 7, Kildunne 7, Wilson 7, Strachan 8, Kava 7, Grimoldby 8 (Salisbury 70 6), Jones 9, Courtney 7, Smith 7 (Adjemi 56 7), Norrie 7 (Barrington 56 6), Auvaa 7, King 7 (Lumley 65 6)Merrett 7 (Mullarkey 65, 6), Rylands 8, Mapapalangi 7 (Ravuvu 59 7)
Scorers
Tries – Ellwood 22, Irvine 36, Eckersley 69 Stewart 73
Conversions – Caven 23, 70
Ampthill
Tries – Kava 5, Smith 15, Jones 25, Auvaa 44, Merrett 48, Kildunne 56, Adjemi 77
Conversions – Grimoldby 6, 16, 26, 45, 57
HT 12-21 FT 26-45
Scrums Won/ Lost Cambridge 5/0 Ampthill 9/0
Line Outs Won Lost Cambridge 5/2 Ampthill 10/0
Penalties Against 9/9
Referee – Andy Wigley
Attendance 1,065
STAR MAN – Efan Jones (Ampthill)