Good performance halted by late Hartpury charge

It was only in the final stages of the game that the league leaders established a comfortable winning margin which flattered them

Their side included several players with experience of the Premiership and Championship including England Sevens star Dan Norton.

We battled all them battle all the way playing some attractive rugby controlling possession and territory for long periods of time.

The one area where we were totally dominant was in the backs where fly half Charlie Foley skilfully used his outside backs with centres Will Meakes and Tom Preece having outstanding games.

They posed numerous problems to the home sides defence breaking the gain line with monotonous regularity.

Surprisingly the home backs had a quiet struggling to make ground against resolute tackling of our backs and all action back row.

It was the firepower of the home forwards which in the end proved to be decisive factor.

The home side took an early lead when fly half Billie Burns landed an early penalty which was swiftly followed by a close range score by hooker Chris Fortey after 10 minutes.

We then took control of proceedings with late call up Fergus Manners impressing in the loose and it was only desperate defence and the lack of a finishing touch which prevented us from scoring.

Eventually Meakes intercepted and raced in under the posts with Foley the gap to a point.

The score did not change until a minute before the break when 17 year old back row man Joe Batley went over from close range went over after 39 minutes with Burns adding the extras.

7 minutes into the second half we again reduced the lead to a point when Preece burst through the midfield to race 30 metres to the line with Foley converting.

On the hour Norton showed his class when he fielded a clearing kick and raced 60 metres to the line leaving several would be tacklers in his wake. Burns added the conversion but Foley kept Clifton in bonus point range with a penalty.

With 12 minutes remaining Hartpury choose a scrum option when awarded a penalty close to the line and their pack shoved us backwards and we were penalised in trying to prevent a score with the referee awarding a penalty try with Burns converting.

Replacement centre Terry Fanolua was the only home back to score when he powered his way over near the posts with Burns converting.

From the restart Hartpury failed to gather the restart and Meakes was on hand to race over with Foley converting.

Another try would have given us at least one bonus point but it was not to be and instead home replacement forward Dave McKee went over out wide for an unconverted try to complete the scoring

We can look forward to the Christmas break in which the players can rest their weary limbs and injurys and come back refreshed on 4 January when we entertain Amphill and Districtm