Match Report: Cardiff 33 – Hartpury 50 – cardiff university rugby

Match Report: Cardiff 33 – Hartpury 50

Hartpury leave it late to win season opening thriller at Cardiff.

by Charlie Thomas

Two tries late in the game secured victory for Hartpury in an electric opening match of the BUCS season at Llanrymney.

With the score tied at 33 all with twenty minutes to go, Hartpury made Cardiff pay for missing a couple of excellent chances by taking their own opportunities to score tries by second row forward Richards-Farr in the 60^th , before number 8 Hillary crossed in the 70^th minutes to put the match beyond Cardiff.

Though disappointed by the result, Cardiff will be buoyed by a fantastic performance against the team that finished in last year’s championship.

Hartpury stared the campaign on fire taking an early 0-14 lead within the first 10 minutes, thanks to tries from Richards- Farr and Smith. Cardiff responded immediately playing some blistering rugby in front of watching Wales football manager Craig Bellamy, crossing four times without reply with tries for Brown, Thomas, Blackburn and Charles.

This put Cardiff 26-14 up, but tries either side of half-time gave the visitors momentum and got them back into the match.

Cardiff scored from a driving maul, hooker Peach crossing the line which Van Deventer converted.

There followed three Hartpury tries, all converted, and a penalty kick at the death, 33-50 the full-time result.

Cardiff’s captain Tom Caple said “there were points where we looked really strong with effort around the park that was good”.

Cardiff Met are next up in Wednesday’s derby match at Cardiff Arms Park where a crowd of over 6,000 is expected.

Cardiff 33-50 Hartpury.

Cardiff:

Tries: Ollie Das, Jack Thomas, Joe Blackburn, Harrison James, Toby Peach.

Conversions: Harrison James (4)

Penalties:

Drop goals:

Hartpury: