Hartpury RFC suffered their first defeat of the season in a 29-15 defeat at Castle Park on Sunday afternoon to Doncaster Knights
Second-half tries from wingers Zach Kerr and Penaia Tagatu were enough to see off Hartpury after a tightly contested first-half separated by only one point.
Hartpury winger Jack Cotgreave drew eyes on him after coming into the team this weekend, earning himself a try with his hardworking kick-chase, before flanker Harry Short scored Pury’s only other try for the afternoon.
Knights made a rapid start with full-back Telusa Veainu bursting through the Hartpury line and going in under the posts unchallenged. An easy conversion followed.
Knights dominated the opening quarter of an hour, but after they let a box kick from Rhys Price bounce, winger Jack Cotgreave made the most of his pace and chased it down, picked it up and finished it off to pull the score back to 7-5. Bazalgette missed a difficult conversion.
Pury took the lead five minutes later through Harry Short, who didn’t have too much to do himself, he finished off a fantastic team move in the left corner, picking the ball up from the base of a ruck and dotting down. With the help of Ollie Allsopp acting as a human tee, Bazalgette made the conversion to make it a five-point lead.
The basketball-style game continued, as Knights re-took the lead. James Isaacs, in his first game at Castle Park, scored from the back of a lineout drive.
The visitors went 15-14 ahead on the stroke of half-time through a Harry Bazalgette penalty goal, won by the pack at a scrum right in front of the posts.
Changes broke up the start of the second half, with both sides struggling to find a rhythm, and that was me even more difficult for Pury when Robbie Smith was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on after 56 minutes.
From the subsequent penalty, Dolly kicked a penalty goal to restore the Knights advantage.
Three minutes later, winger Zach Kerr went over in the right corner for Doncaster, thanks to Semesa Rokoduguni who broke the stretched Pury line, making the most of the man advantage. Dolly excellently converted from distance despite the winds.
Eight minutes from time, the opposite winger Penaia Tagatu went over in the left corner to put the nail in the coffin and hand Doncaster Knights their first points of the season.
Hartpury will look to bounce back in their opening home fixture of the season against Ampthill on Friday night, a short turnaround from Sunday’s defeat.
Lineups:
Doncaster Knights: Telusa Veainu, Zach Kerr, Semesa Rokoduguni (Ryan Owolofela 65), Rhys Beeckmans, Penaia Tagatu, Kieran Wilkinson (Tom Curtis 55), Alex Dolly (Ollie Fox 72); Connor Hancock (Logovi’I Mulipola 5), James Isaacs (Ethan Caine 65), Alex Wardell (Angus Williams 55), Ben Granville (Adam Hopkinson 76), Bailey Ransom, Aidan King, Jasper McGuire.
Unused Sub: Louie Kirkham
Hartpury: Alex Morgan (Will Knight 50), Jack Cotgreave (Oli Smith 76), Robbie Smith, Ollie Allsopp, Ollie Holliday (Brad Denty 46), Harry Bazalgette, Rhys Price (Sam Allford 46); Harry Edwards (Harrison Bellamy 46), Will Crane (C) (George Knowles 64), Alex Gibson (Ollie Minnis 69), Pete Paramore, Dale Lemon, Cam Cobbett, Harry Short (Caio James 64), Noah Williams.
Referee: Matt Sharpe
Attendance: 1,624
Half-Time: Doncaster Knights 14-15 Hartpury
Star Players: (Doncaster Knights) Jack Cotgreave (Hartpury)
STATS:
|
Doncaster Knights RFC |
Hartpury RFC |
|
|
13 |
Penalties conceded |
10 |
|
8 |
Line-outs won |
14 |
|
3 |
Line-outs lost |
4 |
|
7 |
Scrums won |
7 |
|
1 |
Scrums lost |
0 |
|
0 |
Sin-bins |
0 |
|
0 |
Red cards |
0 |
