Cornwell’s side see victory slip through their fingers in agonising final few minutes
By Luke Jarmyn, at 4ED Hartpury Stadium
MARK Cornwell’s Hartpury side had done the hard yards, fought back from a 21-point deficit to take the lead, but saw that effort undone in the final minutes.
The university’s side were pointless and trailing in the first half-hour before winger Brad Denty, flanker Ellis Hart and fullback Alex Morgan all crossed the whitewash, while fly-half Harry Bazalgette scored 18 points and didn’t miss from seven efforts off the tee.
But their 28-point turnaround fell short with Doncaster scoring a try in the final minute to ensure an enthralling game ended in the same manner it was played throughout.
With strong gusts of wind across Gloucestershire, and heavy clouds overhead threatening to rain, the conditions seemed to suit Doncaster in the opening phases after the kick-off and within three minutes No.8 Jasper McGuire had powered through Hartpury’s red line before scrum-half Ollie Fox set up openside Rhys Tait to dot down under the posts.
Knights hit a four-minute purple patch just before the half-hour mark. Fox was the creator again, the half-back’s grubber allowing winger Matt McNab to scoop, kick-chase and score on the right flank.
Then fullback Koloti Veainu danced around several Hartpury defenders to dive over as the visitors backs nullified the red’s forwards physical edge.
Cornwell’s men worked back into the game, a grubber through the visitors’ line allowed winger Brad Denty to cross and ground the ball on the 31st minute.
It gave the reds the lift they needed, and several penalties against Donny led to openside Ellis Hart dotting down at the back of a powerful driving maul move.
The momentum continued for the home-side after the half-time interval, and fullback Alex Morgan dodged several Yorkshire tacklers to score in the corner, with fly-half Harry Bazalgette’s pin-point conversion levelling the game on the 51st minute.
Two minutes later Bazalgette scored a penalty-kick to the delight of the crowd, who saw their side take the lead for the first time in the fixture.
Then it went topsy-turvy, a delayed pass by the visitors’ creative fullback Koloti Veainu opened the gap for inside-centre Zach Kerr to show his pace and get over the line out wide in the corner, putting Knights back ahead, 24-26.
Crucially Doncaster fly-half Morgan Bunting’s touch-line conversion sailed wide, which was the only missed kick of the afternoon in an otherwise excellent kicking spectacle for the Gloucestershire faithful. It would prove to be crucial for both sides come the final whistle.
Doncaster’s poor discipline at the breakdown against Hartpury’s heroic forwards then proved their undoing, with Harry Bazalgette scoring a penalty kick on the 57th minute and again five minutes later with the visitors pinged for not rolling away.
Hartpury were dominating the territory battle, and things went from bad to worse for the visitors with winger Aidan Cross was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on on the 63rd minute, and then their replacement No.8, East Timor Viliamu, saw yellow less than 60 seconds after entering the fray due to the Yorkshire side’s consistent infringing went camped a few metres in front of their own try line.
Despite having a two-man advantage, Hartpury were unable to get that all important fourth bonus-point try. It had looked like the red shirts had crossed on the 69th minute, but for a forward pass.
Instead, captain Will Crane had to settle for another kick to the posts and Bazalgette getting his seventh kick between the sticks with less than six minutes on the clock.
Back to 15-men, Doncaster looked re-invigorated and their 6-2 forwards focused bench split, compared to Hartpury’s 5-3 split, seemed to work as they edged to the try-line at the car-park end of the ground.
After the visitors’ line-out led to a driving maul halted by another impressive physical effort by Jack Davies and co, Doncaster went for a scrum re-set with replacement Fijian scrum-half Cameron Nordli-Kelemeti, who had only signed for the northerners three days earlier, picking the ball up and sniping over the whitewash at the death.
With the clock in the red, Bunting kept his cool to score the conversion and level the game at the end. It meant that Hartpury’s efforts ended with only two points for the draw, keeping the side sixth in the Champ, while Doncaster’s three points keeps them 10th.
Stats:
|
Hartpury RFC |
|
Doncaster Knights |
|
10 |
Penalties conceded |
14 |
|
13 |
Line-outs won |
14 |
|
1 |
Line-outs lost |
2 |
|
5 |
Scrums won |
6 |
|
4 |
Scrums lost |
0 |
|
0 |
Yellow cards |
2 |
|
0 |
Red cards |
0 |
Teams:
Hartpury RFC: Alex Morgan, Brad Denty (Jacob Morris 46), Robert Smith, Oliver Allsopp, Oliver Holliday, Harry Bazalgette, Oscar Lennon; Louie Trevett (Archie McArthur 57), Will Crane (cc) (Ethan Hunt 74), Jon Benz-Solomon (Oliver Minnis 73), Robert Barker, Jack Davies (cc), Peter Paramore (Freddie Stevens 73), Ellis Hart (Harry Short 64), Jarrard Hayler
Not used: Sam Allford, Josh Field
Tries: Brad Denty 31, Ellis Hart 40, Alex Morgan 50
Conversions: Harry Bazalgette 32, 40+1, 50+1
Penalties: Harry Bazalgette 53, 57, 62, 74
Doncaster Knights: Koloti Veainu, Aidan Cross, Semesa Rokoduguni, Zach Kerr, Matthew McNab, Morgan Bunting, Oliver Fox (Cameron Nordli-Kelemeti 64); Logovi’i Mulipola (Lewis Thiede 40), Andrew Davies (George Roberts 48), Joseph Jones (Conor Davidson 10), Ehize Ehizode (Adam Hopkinson 58), Ben Murphy ©, Josh Bainbridge (Ben Chapman 65), Rhys Tait, Jasper McGuire (ET Viliamu 64)
Not used: Ryan Olowofela
Tries: Rhys Tait 3, Matthew McNab 23, Koloti Veainu 26, Zach Kerr 55, Cameron Nordli-Kelemeti 80
Conversions: Morgan Bunting 4, 24, 27, 80+1
Sin-bins: Aidan Cross 63, ET Viliamu 65
Referee: Alex Thomas (RFU)
Attendance: 802
Half-time score: 21-14
Star players: Will Crane (Hartpury RFC) / Rhys Tait (Doncaster Knights)
Reaction:
Bazalgette highlight that “The key was to not panic” for Hartpury
By Luke Jarmyn, at 4ED Hartpury Stadium
HARTPURY RFC’s talismanic fly-half Harry Bazalgette was understandably disappointed after seeing a potential victory slip away in the final seconds of an end-to-end clash with Doncaster.
It soured what had otherwise been an extraordinary fightback by Mark Cornwell’s side, from being 21 points down to going seven points ahead with six minutes left of the game.
The Gloucestershire side were pointless while conceding three converted tries in the first half-hour before winger Brad Denty, flanker Ellis Hart and fullback Alex Morgan all crossed the whitewash, while Bazalgette scored 18 points and didn’t miss from seven attempts off the tee.
He said: “It was a topsy-turvy game. Tough conditions in the first half, so we knew it was going to be a bit of an uphill battle, which it was.
“Two late scores and some great fight brought us back into it just before half time. We had a good start to the second-half, got ourselves into a good position to win it, but just couldn't quite finish the job.”
In terms of the mentality needed to fightback after Doncaster’s early lead, Bazalgette said: “Look, we had a plan. We’ve played on this pitch in those conditions.
“Doncaster’s tries, they weren't system errors or because there was anything wrong with our game plan, they were ultimately individual errors.
“You’ve got to not panic, and we didn’t, we kept doing what we planned to do.
“Those last 10 minutes before half-time, we got the opportunity to do that, kept the ball in hand and we knew if we could go through the phases in the middle of the park, hopefully we could squeeze some penalties and get some field position.
“And that's what we did, as well as being clinical when we got there.”
Bazalgette’s impressive pin-point kicking was key to the turnaround, as it has been all season with him being consistently in the top three of the Champ’s point scorers.
On how he managed his kicking despite the gusty wintery conditions, he said: “It was good. In these sorts of games, you know that two points literally could have been the difference.
“So there’s no illusion, you've got to get those kicks on days like today. From a personal perspective I’m happy but I’m a bit gutted at the overall result.”
One positive is the draw meant Hartpury have gone four games unbeaten at home, as he added: “One hundred per cent its important. Last year we sort of built this place into a fortress and that’s continuing. I've played against Hartpury before joining, and coming here as an opposition, it is a really hard place to come.
“We’re looking at things one game at a time. We want to win every game. We want to go out and compete in every game, whether it's home or away.
“And the more we can make this place a fortress, it's always going to have that psychological sort of edge to give us that boost when we might need it.
“Importantly we’ll pick up the positives, carry them into the Scottish game and any fix-ups that there might be, we’ll address those and hopefully won't repeat the same mistakes.”
Will Crane picked up the club’s man of the match award, but Hartpury’s co-captain and spoke of how his overriding feeling after the draw was one of frustration while being honest about the players having a frank word with each other under the sticks during the first-half.
The hooker said: “Going into it, it felt like two pretty evenly matched sides. Doncaster started really, really well, so we had to find a little bit in the first half, but probably, if you look at it, we lost it at the end.
“But despite that it was a really good game. Both sides will feel a bit frustrated, but we've lost it at the end.
“It’s mixed emotions as on the other hand, it was good how we fought back from 21-0 down. There were a few stern words under the post in the first half, but that sort of that consolidation and getting the momentum back on our side to then going in at half-time seven points down with a tough wind and coming out scoring first. We got the momentum back on our side.”
On how crucial the two tries before half-time were, he said: “Really, really important. The driving maul is something we've been wanting. It's a bit of a weapon of ours, but teams really focus on it.
“We haven't really got over the line the last few weeks. So, getting over the line there for a really important try was very beneficial.
“The weather was the same for both teams. It's just how you play it. We potentially gave them a bit too much respect in the first half. Doncaster’s back three were very, very dangerous. Well, their whole back line was.
“Maybe just kicking in a few more tactical places would have helped us. But when we crawled back control and got ahead, it was good.”
On how Hartpury re-started strong in the second-half, he said: “We had a good chat at half-time on how we're going to attack the breakdown, maybe leaving the ball alone and firing through the backs.
“It seemed to get a few rewards from the referee. It's good on us players that we identify that stuff and adapt on the hoof.”
On how important having Harry Bazalgatte’s kicking is for Hartpury, he said: "Harry’s such a weapon, even I spoke with Doncaster’s George Roberts after the game, he said you've just got to be so careful anywhere inside your own half because Harry will just slot the ball home.
“So it’s great for us, a pain for other teams. Equally there’s a risk about relying on him too much, maybe we should go for the corner a little bit more.
“But again, you look at it objectively with 21-nil down, 33, you'll take it.”
Fullback Alex Morgan was also singled out for his try-scoring display, with Crane adding: “Alex Morgan is absolutely on fire this year. Just everything he does, he seems to pop up in the right places.
“He's fighting through tackles, and again, I'm happy he's on my team rather than someone else's.”
On the win slipping away in the final minutes, he said: “As a ream we gave away too many penalties. We put Donny on their own five metre line and gave away penalty, penalty, penalty, and they're good enough then to take an opportunity and score when given the opportunity.
“That's more on us, our discipline and realising where we are in the game rather than patting them on the back for them for capitalising.
“We should have capitalised on the period that Donny only had 13 men a bit more. That's where I reflected on just taking the threes, we should have maybe gone to the corner a little bit more.”
On his personal star man showing, Crane said: “Personally, I’m very happy with how it went, but I'd always rather a team performance rather than individual. We have to remember there’s lots of good stuff to take, lots of good stuff to work from.”
On the other side of the changing rooms, Doncaster head coach Darren Fearn was upbeat after the exhausting encounter, and said: “Its three crucial points for us to take back up north with us.
“We’ve got a lot to work on, but the spirit to in this side to battle to the death can’t be faltered. It meant we won the game last week, and this time we got a draw in the final seconds.
“A big weapon for Hartpury is their maul, so when we’re down to 13 men and we hold them out on our own goal line, and then win a scrum penalty, that’s really impressive and set the platform for us to equalise.”
