After another ‘false start’ in Gloucestershire, Cambridge are probably ruing Friday Night Lights. Hartpury has never been a particularly happy hunting ground for the Blood & Sand and so it proved again on Friday with the hosts racing into an early lead. The first minute saw an attempted clearance charged down by Harry Short for the opening score, converted by Harry Bazalgette and the tone was set for a torrid evening.
Ethan Hunt added the second 5 minutes in from a driving maul. Bazalgette added the extras again. And Richie Williams side were left with the prospect of chasing the game for 75 minutes. Despite an improvement from the visitors, Hunt added his second try before Bazalgette nudged over a penalty for a 24-nil half time lead. The good news was that, with Sam Hanks in the sin bin, Cambridge conceded just 3 points in that 10 minute period, which precipitated a purple patch after the break.
Hanks cut through for the Blood & Sand’s opener amid a swathe of attacks. This one was after a winning scrum in front of Hartpury’s posts and neatly illustrated what’s possible with the right amount of go-forward. With a little more precision – and indeed luck – Cambridge could have added to their total. As it happened, the hosts wrestled back control and added three more tries of their own through Ollie Holliday, Short again, and Alex Gibson.
Ollie Betteridge had the last word with his first try for Cambridge – but, generally speaking, it was a night to forget (or, indeed, learn from) in a damp and dreary Gloucestershire.
Richie Williams couldn’t hide his disappointment afterwards: “The manner in which we played in that opening 20 minutes probably set the tone for the night. When you concede four penalties in the opening 10 minutes you out yourselves under significant pressure and when you give a team like Hartpury easy entries into your 22 you’re making it very difficult for yourselves. We’d spoken a lot in the week about being very disciplined in the middle third and for some reason we weren’t. We found ourselves 14-nil down after about 5 minutes and playing away from home on a Friday night you’re then immediately on the back foot. We had a pretty honest conversation at half time and we came out fighting but we have to be much better than that against any team this season”.
Teams
Hartpury
Morgan, Denty (Jones 57), Edwards-Giraud, Smith (Taylor 65), Holliday, Bazalgette, Austin (Chapman 57); A Benz-Salomon (Gibson 73), Hunt (Crane 57), J Benz-Salomon (Rees 65), Lemon (Cobbett 15), Davies, Lewis (Hart 76), Short, Minto
Cambridge
Tarrant (Lennon 66), Skelcey (Betteridge 66), Hema, Hanks, Williams, Grimoldby, White (Dawson 50); Ellwood (Brownhill 60), Veness (Knight), Walker (Bridges 60), Sylvester, Bretag Norris (Baxter 50), Rees, Cardew, Bartlett (Adams 50)
Scorers
Hartpury
Tries – Short 2, 73 Hunt 5, 27 Holliday 65 Gibson 78
Conversions – Bazalgette 3, 6, 28, 74, 79
Penalty – Bazalgette 40
Cambridge
Tries – Hanks 60, Betteridge 80