Hartpury RFC …25pts
Tries: Barton 4, Penalty 44, Hunt 68 Conversions: Bazalgette 69
Penalties: Bazalgette 30, 72
Cornish P ……….30pts
Tries: Hocking 20, Stevens 34, McNab 37, Morris 79 Conversions: Houston 35, 38
Penalties: Houston 7, Pittman 76
LOOSEHEAD Jacob Morris muscled over in the final play as 12-man Cornish Pirates survived a huge Hartpury second-half scare to keep their title fight alive.
The Penzance side nearly threw away a 14-point half-time cushion, suffering three sin-bins in a rocky 10-minute spell, but showed real grit to win in front of Hartpury's biggest crowd of the season.
Joint-head coach Gavin Cattle cut a relieved figure after Pirates got their first win at the College Ground since 2018 in a titanic endto-end West Country affair.
He said: “It was tough, we've played better and lost this season, so there's a lot for us to review.
“We had to adapt to win, with three yellow cards at times when we were desperately under pressure. We had to make so many changes and little things like inserting our 12 into the lineout kept us in the game. Hartpury put us under huge pressure at our maul, which is unusual for us, and our attacking breakdown wasn't where it needed to be.”
It took Hartpury four minutes to open the scoring when talisman Harry Bazalgette set-up George Barton and the Gloucester-loaned fullback jinked past two defenders to run in from 15-metres out.
Pirates fly-half Bruce Houston kicked a penalty, and the visitors took the lead on the 20th minute, with debutant Harry Hocking dotting down off the back of a driving maul from a quick lineout move.
Bazalgette levelled the game on the half-hour but with Hartpury skipper Will Crane sin-binned for a head-on-head collision, it was all Pirates. Openside John Stevens slipped past two defenders on the right to finish a fantastic attack that began with No.9 Ruaridh Dawson breaking through, then Matt McNab intercepted a long looping pass to run in a solo-effort against his old university.
Hartpury grabbed a penalty try when Crane dived over while both lock Will Britton and No.8 Hugh Bokenham were sinbinned for pulling down at the lineout. Pirates held firm, even with tighthead Matt Johnson also being sin-binned on the 55th minute for a high tackle.
Hartpury hooker Ethan Hunt skirted a defender to score off a quick lineout move, and Bazalgette's boot was pin-point perfect to give his side the lead from over 50 metres out.
But Pirates' pivot Tom Pittman scored off the tee, and a Kyle Moyle break finished with Morris scoring for the win.
Hartpury boss John Barnes said: “We're disappointed. We got them on the back foot in the second half but our game management lost it for us in the final minutes.”
