Captain Scott leads Richmond to victory

By TIM FORRESTER

Hartpury …………36pts

Tries: Crane 4, Short 10, Bailey 20, 29; Capon 64, Wood 71

Conversions: Williams 11, 21, 30

Richmond……….40pts

Tries: Wakeling 23, Waite 33, 46; Mpiko 35, Bentley 73, Scott 79

Conversions: Burrage 24; Landray 36, 47, 74, 80

Hartpury win on aggregate score 97-64

A DEPLETED Richmond side pulled off a battling last minute victory over a full strength Hartpury side in the second leg of this cup game.

Having secured a 24-61 advantage in the first game, Hartpury go through as overall winners to play Jersey next, but Richmond were delighted with the efforts of their young side.

Director of rugby Steve Hill said: “I was incredibly pleased with the performance today. We dug in really well hard in the second half. We were giving quite a number of boys their first chance in the team and a number of them stepped up really well. I was really proud of them.”

The result looked unlikely after the first quarter. Playing with a strong wind, Hartpury were 19-0 up after 20 minutes, all three tries stemming from short range lineouts.

Will Crane and Harry Short touched down the first two, whilst Deago Bailey got the third, after the initial drive was held and the ball was moved wide.

When Miles Wakeling opened the Richmond scoring, it seemed a brief interruption of Hartpury’s progress, as Bailey soon added his team’s fourth try. However, by half-time, Hartpury led by just seven points, Oscar Waite and Ntinga Mpiko completing patient Richmond build up.

Playing with the elements, Waite soon scored a second try to level. However, when Hartpury scored twice more from short lineouts through Will Capon and Brandon Wood, the game looked over.

Despite losing four players to injury during the game, Richmond battled on and got within a score when Vaughan Bentley charged over, following a break by Owain James.

With just two minutes remaining, Richmond had one final chance. Setting up ten metres out, the forwards secured possession and slowly mauled forwards and skipper Myles Scott took the honours, breaking off to storm over for the conclusive try.

Hartpury head coach Mark Cornwell said: “We’re pretty disappointed. It was probably a difficult situation being so far up after the first game. I think the boys thought the same thing was going to happen, especially after the first 20 minutes.

“But all credit to Richmond. They never made it easy for us. They battled hard and they were oppressive all game. They deservedly won the game. Luckily our drive kept us in it and got us through in the end.”