Rugby round-up from the Championship to the grassroots leagues
A strong first half paved the way for Hartpury’s 34-10 Championship win over Cornish Pirates.
Hartpury took advantage of early errors by the visitors which led to hooker Ethan Hunt scoring the opening try, converted by Harry Bazalgette.
A penalty was slotted by fly-half Bruce Houston for Pirates but midway through the half Hartpury earned themselves a second score.
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Taking play to the blindside, wing Brad Denty who crossed in the corner for an unconverted try, and then, after the Pirates gave another penalty away, Hartpury scored again, this time through flanker Harry Short.
Bazalgette was back on target with the boot, his conversion making it 19-3.
From another driving lineout opportunity arose, Hartpury scored their fourth try as hooker Hunt got on the scoresheet once again, Bazalgette off target with his conversion attempt, but the try bonus point was comfortably in the bag, Hartpury holding a comfortable 24-3 half-time lead.
The Pirates did get a try as Alex Everett ran in from 30 metres out with Charlie McCaig adding the conversion.
Bazalgette extended Hartpury’s lead with a penalty to all but scupper Pirates’ hopes, and a comfortable win was confirmed by a converted try for Jarrard Hayler as Hartpury leapfrogged Pirates into fifth place.
Clifton beat Cinderford 39-18 in an exciting second against third National Two West encounter.
The Foresters took the lead inside two minutes as Harry Johnson slotted a penalty, but Clifton scored the opening try of the afternoon, and added a second by punishing Cinderford’s mistakes once more.
With five minutes left of the first 40, Cinderford scored their first try as winger Sam Smith scored in the corner but Clifton kicked another penalty before the break to go in nine points in front.
Clifton continued their impressive first half form with a third try before Cinderford attempted to claw their way back with a try from Stan Folks-Underhill.
But Clifton kept firing back, securing the bonus point and despite Cinderford’s third try through Will Baldwin, the visitors had the last say to cap off an impressive away win.
Matson won a thrilling Regional 1 South West contest at Royal Wootton Bassett, edging home 38-35 with five tries apiece.
Bassett scored a converted try in the first minute, but Matson responded with a try for Fergus Jones, converted by Connor Gwilliam.
The hosts then scored two converted tries, but Tom Collier went over for a converted try leaving Matson 21-14 down at half-ime.
Connor Gwlliam kicked a penalty which proved to be significant at the end as Bassett went over again making it 28-17.
That was the signal for Matson to roar back as Josh Locke and Ryan Woodhouse scored converted tries and when Shaun Knight’s try was also converted Matson led 38-28.
With 10 minutes left, Basset scored another converted try but the Matson defence held firm.
Lydney were beaten 19-15 at promotion favourites Launceston, losing to a last-minute try.
A penalty from Jake Hanley put them in front and they extended the lead as Sam Baker touched down and Hanley kicked the conversion from out wide for a 10-0 lead.
The Severnsiders lost Alex Nelmes to a yellow card and a Launceston try cut the gap to 10-5 by half-time.
Launceston took the lead with a converted try but Lydney hit back as Brad Dunn entered the line outpacing defenders to regain the lead at 15-12.
But deep into injury time Launceston went over for the match-winning try, with Lydney’s display deserving more than a single bonus point.
The clash of the top two in Regional 2 Severn saw Drybrook inflict a 36-14 defeat on table-topping Chippenham to leave them eight points behind with two games in hand.
The opening exchanges were fierce, and Drybrook were soon knocking on the door.
A knock on with the line at their mercy looked to have given Chippenham a way out but the Drybrook pack shunted Chippenham off their own ball and Haydon Roberts was on hand to grab the first try.
Chippenham attacked from the restart and darted over for a converted try.
On 24 minutes Drybrook had an attacking five metre scrum, and as they drove the home team back over the line, the ball popped out for Cai Rogers to score in the corner.
A fine conversion from Roberts saw the visitors back in the lead at 12-7 and they extended this further with a Roberts penalty and a try from Casey Morgan, again converted by Roberts.
Chippenham lost a man to the sinbin and Drybrook took advantage with Roberts’ second try of the game, with his conversion making it 29-7 at the break.
After soaking up the Chippenham pressure, Rogers glided in to extend the Drybrook lead with a try converted by Roberts before Chippenham grabbed a consolation try at the end.
Will Marks scored two tries as Stow-on-the-Wold won 33-27 at Thornbury, Ben Collett, Cam Tyler and Andrew Piercy with the others, with four conversions for Dave O’Sullivan.
Longlevens beat Weston-super-Mare 29-12 thanks to tries for David Edwards, David Hughes, Piers Fortey, James Butler and Jack Cuthbert, along with two Brad Wilkins conversions.
Diontay King and Malachi Mills scored a try each, but Old Centralians went down 47-10 at Trowbridge.
Newent’s unbeaten Regional 2 Midlands West record survived the sternest of examinations in their 21-15 win at Shipston-on-Stour.
A game which was fiercely contested and could have gone either way ended in dramatic fashion, with Newent forcing a knock-on inches from their line.
Newent opened the scoring with a Leo Oakey try which Doug Long converted before Shipston reduced the arrears with a penalty.
Newent’s scrum was the platform for the second try as Long released Will Hartland for the finish. Long added a good conversion to extend the lead to 14-3.
Shipston responded strongly with a try, but the conversion attempt was narrowly off target to leave the half-time score at 14-8.
A succession of penalties put Newent under pressure as the hosts turned down a couple of easy three-pointers and got their reward with a converted try to edge 15-14 in front.
Their lead was short lived, as Tom Webb was halted by a high tackle 25m out and George Clair kicked the penalty to the right-hand corner.
Newent secured their lineout and created a clear for Adrian Connelly, but when Tom Webb’s pass to him was knocked on the referee showed a yellow card before running between the posts to signal a penalty try, which restored Newent’s lead.
With the game in stoppage time, Shipston scented a final opportunity for the win through a series of pick and goes before a final lunge for the line saw the ball dislodged by the weight of Newent’s tacklers.
The referee signalled that it had gone forward and blew for full-time.
Cheltenham were 24-10 winners at Ledbury, going ahead when a mis-pass from Dan Spencer-Tonks put Lewis Neal into the corner for a try.
Ledbury responded within five minutes with a converted try after taking a scrum against the head and extended their lead to 10-5 with a penalty.
Joe Warner ran around four defenders to score a try before the game was halted for 10 minutes after a serious injury to a Ledbury player, then Warner kicked the conversion to make it 12-10.
Cheltenham scored again when Warner put in a perfect grubber kick and Flinn Roberts fed Tom Cowan to score by the posts, Warner with the extras.
Omar Ly then sealed the win as he went the length of the field for a try and the bonus point.
Gordon League were 36-27 Counties 1 Western North winners over Burnham-on-Sea as Ciarnan Sysum scored two tries and kicked three conversions.
Kaian Buhagiar, Jaden Goodhall, Ryan Carter and Jake White scored League’s other tries.
Chosen Hill Former Pupils were beaten 38-21 by Taunton II, Alfie Howe with two tries and Rob Panting with the other, Tom Park kicking two conversions and Harry Matthews one.
James Kear scored tries with a try and conversion for Sam Allford but Cinderford II were beaten 69-17 at Nailsea & Backwell.
Smiths extended their lead at the top of Counties 2 Gloucestershire North to 16 points with a 35-3 win over second-placed Old Patesians, their 15th win out of 15 games this season.
Mitch Renton crossed for four tries, Matt Dean with the other, while Marcus Raymond added two conversions and two penalties, Pats’ response being a Sam Rhymes penalty.
They are two points ahead of Cheltenham North, who edged out Berry Hill 38-31.
Atama Susu and Martin Taylor made 14-0 with tries converted by Jack Fowler before Hill got on the board with a converted score, then Aminiasi Umata’s try, converted by Fowler, made it 21-7 and Hill cut the gap to 21-14 at half-time.
Two tries for Will Allenby extended the lead further but Hill came back again to make it 31-21, and a converted bonus-point score left the Forest side 31-28 behind.
A try by Sam Chappell-Davies converted by Fowler saw North to the victory with Berry Hill kicking a penalty to take a losing bonus point.
Harry Jenkins, Josh Element (two) and Ben Lewis crossed for Berry Hill with Jake Ashley kicking a penalty and four conversions.
Old Richians went down 22-12 at Stroud, who scored tries through Dylan D’Arcy, Sam Hester and Harry Lightfoot, Hester with two conversions and a penalty.
Harry Leftwich scored a hat-trick as Hucclecote won 54-10 at Brockworth, the other tries coming from Jon Hogg, Brad Harris, Max Marshall, Fred Baldwin-Foot and Josh McGill, who also converted seven tries.
Brockworth's tries came from Alfie Burns and Chris Humphrey.
Ashley Lewis kicked four penalties as Coney Hill edged out Cirencester 12-10
Bredon Star, with 17 out of the squad of 18 coming through their junior section, won 31-28 at Gloucester Old Boys with two tries for Josh Suckling and one each for Arthur Tunnicliffe, Matty Peters and Henry Tarrant, who also converted three.
Old Boys took two bonus points with two tries for Dom Chant and one for Ben Thompson and Tadgh Galvin, Taylor Unett converting all four.
Fairford lost 20-12 in Counties 2 Dorset and Wilts North at Minety, Jake Barstow and Harri Cummings with their tries, Cummings converting once.
Dursley suffered a blow to their Counties 2 Gloucestershire South hopes with a 24-21 loss at Old Colstonians, Ollie Gorman, Declan Price and Simon Camm with tries and penalties for Arron Lennard and Ozzie Bury. Bream were 22-19 winners over Lydney II.
Counties 3 Gloucestershire North leaders Tewkesbury were 40-24 winners at Spartans to open up an 11-point lead at the top.
Max Rendell, Shaun Mason, Brendan Llewelyn, Giles Sayner, Easton Harris and Brodie Cook got their tries with James Watkins converting five.
Jamie Fowke, Josh Fowke and a penalty try responded for the Red Ants with two conversions and a penalty for Conn Mundie.
Second-placed Widden Old Boys beat Longlevens II 54-12 with tries for Jacob Marsh, Fred Nicholson, Rilwan Lawal, Tom Parks-Lewis, Alfie Fuller, Gavin Deane, Ben Kayall and Ed Jeffs, Jordan Walker adding seven conversions.
Five tries for Elliott Norwood helped Old Cryptians to a 60-12 win over CCS Warpigs with Will Trumper and Joe Freeman crossing twice and Rhys Blackford once, Trumper booting five conversions.
Colts players Harry Danvers and George Davey scored two tries each on their debuts as Matson II beat Minchinhampton 34-17.
Another colt, Josh Reeves, also made a good impression with Callum Dunn and Vince Lanciano also scoring tries, Lanciano with two conversions.
Counties Gloucestershire 4 saw Drybrook II beat Bishopston 43-12 thanks to tries for Marcus Cowles, Jack Davis, Ollie Heal (two), Fin Smith, Tom Sumner and a penalty try, Andy Milner with three conversions.
Dave Mince, Gary Pritchard and Max Roberts scored tries as Ross- on-Wye beat Bristol Barbarians 19-13, Pritchard adding two conversions.
Smiths Rugby II were beaten 43-12 by Yate with tries for Joe Hemming and Liam Bond, Tom Wardell with a conversion.