It was a boxing day full of good cheer for Nottingham Rugby and their 2,000+ supporters as they ran in six tries to defeat Hartpury 38-24. After falling behind early on the Archers dominated the remainder of the first half. The second period was a much more balanced affair, with the visitors gaining some late momentum, but it proved to be too little too late as they returned home with merely a try bonus point.
There were barely three minutes on the clock when a loose pass by Evan Mitchell exposed Gwyn Parks, who gave away a penalty for holding on. The home side compounded the error by infringing again and again inside their own 22. Will Crane used the field position to pile over; Harry Bazalgette couldn’t convert from his hands after the wind blew the ball off the tee.
It was then Hartpury’s turn to be sloppy in possession which Michael Green capitalised on as he powered from just inside the Hartpury half deep into the 22. The ball was recycled to Levi Roper via James Cherry to cross between the sticks. Parks converted.
Moments later it was Cherry’s turn to maraud into visitor territory. Once again Nottingham moved the ball quickly, only stopped when winger Haydn Lewis got in the way from an offside position, for which he duly received a yellow card. Jack Dickinson was at the centre of the ensuing maul to put the Archers further ahead, with Parks on target again.
Approaching the half hour mark Hartpury were pinned deep in their own 22. Bazalgette put in a great clearing kick but the chasing pack were pinged for offside. Parks shaped for a kick to the right hand corner then fooled everyone in a red shirt by tapping and passing to the opposite side, with the ball eventually reaching Harry Graham to dart in at the corner. Conversion missed.
Nottingham were back in the same corner moments later and, after a couple of pick and goes, Will Yarnell found Dan Richardson who secured the try bonus point. Parks’s conversion was good this time to make it Nottingham 26-5 Hartpury at the interval.
At the start of the second half Nottingham returned the favour of being offside at a clearance kick, allowing Hartpury to set up a five metre lineout from which prop Louie Trevett bludgeoned his way over. With a colleague holding the ball on the tee this time Bazalgette only succeeded in hitting the post.
That momentum for the visitors was immediately snuffed out when scrum half Oscar Lennon was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle. And not long afterwards Cherry and player of the match Green combined once more for the latter to run in Nottingham’s fifth score.
After a relatively settled period it was Nottingham on the attack again on 65 minutes with replacement prop Aniseko Sio adding the home side’s sixth, before Hartpury struck back through Robbie Smith.
With memories of Bedford having come back to draw, after Nottingham had led by 21 points, in the home side’s minds, Hartpury looked to further close what had been a 28 point deficit. Ethan Hunt brought them within two scores but, with time ticking down they could only push for a losing bonus point, however strong defence in the maul from the Archers stopped the visitors in their tracks and brought the contest to a close.
First try scorer Levi Roper described what helped his side keep in front this time: “We’ve just got to dig in like that a bit more towards the end of games. We’ve been focussing on it in training the last couple of weeks but we had a decent lead, so as long as we kept doing those good things the whole way through the game we knew we’d be okay.”