LI AASE (St Paul’s) v Hartpury college

So sunny Wednesday afternoon and a lovely drive down to Gloucester (scenic route) to arrive at Hartpury College about half an hour before the 6 o’clock kick off, missed the college entrance so a quick lap of the college site (it’s massive) and arrive just in time for the end of the warm up and as the fog began to fall….

Irish needed a bonus point win with Hartpury getting no match points to steal the home semi-final spot against Sarries (Oaklands) rather than the trip away to Leeds (Prince Henry’s). But this seemed a bit unlikely as Hartpury had only ever lost once before in the league stages (To Irish earlier in the season ) and hadn’t lost at home since 2009.
So before moving onto this game a quick recap of the season so far.
The competition is divided in to two pools with St Pauls (Irish) Hartpury (Gloucester) Filton (Bristol) Henley (Wasps) and Ivybridge and Truro (Both Exeter) in the southern group, Sides play each other home and away across the season with the top two sides qualifying for the finals stage in the main competition (There is also a Plate and Bowl competition) Irish’s away win against Filton the previous week had guaranteed a semi-final in the main competition. (Note: Quins & Bath don’t run AASE programmes, maybe that is why they like our academy graduates!)
It’s been a long season and have so far I have managed to get to about half of the games we’ve had a real mixture, afternoon and evening Ko’s at Sunbury and nearly at Henley (Floodlight failure meant a postponement) Several games both home and away at Maidenhead (How does that happen?) on the 3G pitch. Big wins (15-60 at Ivybridge) and tighter ones (3-10 loss to Henley)
Irish had to this point lost twice in the league away to one of the other top sides (Truro) and at home to Henley who are near to the bottom of the table. The loss to Henley followed the Hartpury win at home and was a real shock so the team will need to be careful in the semi-final that this excellent performance doesn’t result in a poor following game in the same way it sometimes does for the first team….
So going into the game Irish got an early head of steam with the team driving away at the Hartpury line, following a penalty exchange an Irish maul was set up just inside the 22 and made rapid progress towards the line hooker Curtis Langdon was at the back and as we crossed the line fell to score Irish’s first try. (3-8)
There was a long injury delay mid-way through the half with Ed Simmons being eventually stretchered off with what looked like a leg injury.
Irish continued to dominate the half and going into the last few minutes were camped on the try line line . Sir warned the Hartpury captain and on the next play issued a yellow card. Within a couple of minutes the Irish extra numbers resulted in a second try for John Williams. There was a final chance but Irish went wide and the danger ended lead to a half time lead of 6-15.
Early in the second half there was a high tackle from Jerome Trail which lead to a yellow card and a period of uncontested scrums (at this level Irish lose an additional player during this period) Hartpury scored their only try of the game in the near corner but still still converted making in 13-15.

With about 20 minutes to go Irish get the maul going heading towards the line. It seems to be pulled down just short and the ref awards a penalty to Irish but this time no card… I’ve seen penalty tries given in that situation but not this time the penalty is missed and it remains tight… Maybe this was the point the bonus point became very difficult?
Into the last 3 minutes (Hartpury have an electronic score board and countdown clock (which the ref ignores!!)) )Irish are pressing again and attempt a cross field kick the bounce work s for us and Elliott Cox crosses the line as time runs out on the clock the kick is missed 13-20 but the ref decides that the restart needs to be taken.
Time for big decisions to be taken, you‘re 7 up with no time left, 3 tries scored and a 4th would get the home semi but Hartpury haven’t lost at home since 2009…. What would you do? The call comes from the coaches and the restart is taken the ball is cleared and Irish have won but will be away in Leeds for the Semi-final.
This has been the first year that I’ve got to AASE games and have enjoyed it (room booked at my brother’s in the north for the semi-final) The coaching team (Dec, Giselle and Pete) seem to have got the team working together and thy appear to be moving into the knock out phase with confidence.
Hopefully a win in Leeds (Otley actually) on the 26 March and then a third defeat of Hartpury on finals day are still on the cards (Beating Oaklands would be fun as well but not as much fun as beating Hartpury again!!)
If the new board and Brian are serious about developing players through both the under 18’s league (AASE youngsters and EPDG group) and AASE programmes we have to hope that a number of these players are still around in the first year of the full academy programme and that the current first years continue to develop as they have over this year… (I have seen players in both year groups that I think will make it in both year groups but at this stage it was such a team performance that it doesn’t seem appropriate to name them and my view is probably subjective any way (My favourites always seem to be backs!)). I suppose a sprinkling of young Irish talent in that group might also be helpful but for me not at the exclusion of this group of players.
There are other match report from “In at the side” http://www.inattheside.com/hartpurys-four-year-unbeaten-home-record-toppled-st-pauls/ and live blog of key events can be read http://www.inattheside.com/hartpur-v-london-irish-aase-2/ if you want to see others’ views.

Irish Team: 1 Jerome Trail 2 Curtis Langdon 3 Jake Waterman 4 Charlie Stonehill 5 Oliver Curry 6 Max Berry 7 Greg Brown 8 Ben O¹Shea (Vice-Captain) 9 Connor Murphy 10 Joseph Gwyther 11 Ed Simmons 12 John Williams 13 Elliott Cox – Captain 14 Reuben Norville 15 Cameron Cowell
Replacements: 16 Tyler White 17 George Frampton 18 Luke Frost 19 Ross Miller 20 Eddie Lewis 21 Cameron Smith 22 Elliot Moses