National Two South: Cambridge end Taunton's perfect start

Cambridge ended Taunton’s unbeaten start to the season to move level on points at the top of National Two South after seven rounds.

The Old Albanian are now just two points behind the leaders and are joined by Clifton who had to settle for a draw against Southend.

Elsewhere, there were wins for Redruth and Bishops Stortford while Barnes and Bury St Edmunds continued their good recent forms.

Cambridge 32-19 Taunton

Taunton suffered their first defeat of the season against a Cambridge side who continue to grow in strength as this campaign goes on.

Michael Ayrton, who performed well all afternoon for Cambridge, got his side off the mark before James Ayrton doubled the hosts lead after a lovely dummy pass created a gap for him to go over.

Harry Strong then gathered a cross-field kick from Gary Kingdom to touch down for Taunton, but the home side tighten their grip on proceedings when a solo effort from James Stokes gave them a 17-5 half-time lead.

After the break, Steve Hipwell got the bonus point try for Cambridge, before Stokes slotted over a penalty to increase their lead to 25-5.

Jack Claydon got one back for Taunton, but George Bretag-Norris’s try put the game out of Taunton’s reach with 10 minutes to go.

A late try from prop Jack Woolmore was a consolation for Taunton, who failed to pick up a single point for the first time this season.

Chinnor 14-50 Old Albanian

Old Albanian kept the heat on the top two with a thumping win away at struggling Clifton.

Two tries from Harry Bate and one each for James Spiers and Matthew Gallacher put the OA’s in full control as they led 7-24 with Chinnor’s score coming from winger George Blewitt.

Max Malins opened the floodgates for the second half before Morgan Thompson and William Thompson dotted down as the OA’s entered the final 10 minutes leading 7-45.

Samuel Linnon got try number eight for the visitors three minutes from the end and Jack Adams went over for Chinnor with the final play of the game.

After a sixth place finish last season, Chinnor are currently in 15^th having lost all seven of their games so far this season.

Southend 24-24 Clifton

Clifton’s excellent start to the 2015/16 campaign took a minor set-back as they drew to a Southend side who produced a superb second half fight back.

In fairness to Clifton, they had to battle for the points on the south coast as Number 8 Alfie Toola Vaeluaga was sent off on 21 minutes for striking an opponent.

The sending off didn’t seem to affect Clifton who were ahead 7-21 at the break with Bradley Barnes’ try coming before the dismal. Callum Roberts and Elias Caven crossed after Vaeluaga was shown red with Iain Meads scoring for Southend.

After half-time, Harry Hudson and Andrew Uren exchanged tries before Southend took full advantage of their extra man.

Jason Fardell, Hayden Smith and Krijin Smith brought the score to 31-31 with ten minutes remaining after all scoring well worked tries.

Barnes had executed a drop goal to precision in between the Southend tries and slotted a penalty six minutes from time to give the visitors the lead.

But a Bradley Burr penalty two minutes later secured the draw for Southend, who may feel disappointed that they didn’t achieve maximum points this Saturday. 

Bishop Stortford 48-13 Canterbury

Bishops Stortford bounced back from defeat to the Old Albanian with a controlled win at Canterbury, who have now lost their last four matches.

The hosts had sealed their bonus point by half-time as a brace from prop William Roberts and a try a piece for Nicholas Hankin and James Rae gave them a commanding 29-8 lead.

Canterbury’s points came from the boot of Thomas Best and a try from Martyn Beaumont and they opened the second 40 with another try as replacement Harry Sayers darted over.

Matthew Tomlinson was sin-binned for the home side, but the City Men could not capitalise as further tries from Richard Gill and Dominic Morris stretched Stortford’s lead.

A bad day got slightly worse for Canterbury when Best was shown a yellow card and flanker Stephen Ball crossed for Stortford’s seventh and final try of the afternoon.

Dorking 17-23 Redruth

Redruth picked up an impressive home win against Dorking to take their tally to three wins on the road this season – which is more than they achieved in the whole of the last campaign.

Two David Mankee penalties edged The Reds in front at the break with Ryan Jeffery claiming the only try of the first half for Dorking.

Flanker Christopher Fuca got Redruth’s first try of the afternoon before Jeffery’s dotted down his second to make it 10-13.

Matthew Higgins was shown a yellow card for the hosts just after the hour and Redruth pilled the pressure on Dorking.

Eventually they were awarded a penalty try which Mankee converted before nudging over a penalty for a 10-23 lead.

Dorking staged a late fight back as Jonathan Vermont crossed for 17-23, but Redruth held on for victory.

Redingsensians 24-27 Old Elthamians

The Old Elthamians’ good recent form continued as they made it four wins in five with victory over newly promoted Redingsensians.

Brilliant tries from James Cullen and Thomas White saw the OE’s take a 7-17 lead after 29 minutes with the home sides points coming in the form of a Dieter Kerschbaumer try which was converted by Samuel Brown.

Oliver Taylor reduced the score to 12-17 just before half-time, but two terrific scores from James Foxley and Oliver Poole gave the Rams a 24-17 lead.

Poole was then sin-binned but the OE’s could only achieve three points from the boot of White during the winger’s absence.

Then came in the turning point in the match. Redingsensians centre Andrew Amour was yellow carded on the hour and six minutes later, Jonathan Webber crossed for the crucial try of the game to clinch the win for the OE’s.

Launceston 31-33 Barnes

Launceston secured their first two points of the season thanks to a late fightback at home to Barnes - who made it three wins in a row.

The match was a great advert for National Two Rugby as Barnes raced into a 5-21 lead with tries coming from Rupert Crossland and Alexander Crane and 11 points coming from the boot of Tom O’Toole.

The home sides points came via full-back Issac Hydleman and they scored the first try of the second half when Lewis Edwards powered his way over.

Replacement Ciaran Smyth then stretched Barnes’ lead to 10-28 with the help of another penalty from O’Toole before James Salter dotted down for the home side.

O’Toole then responded with a try of his own for 17-33, but then the comeback then began. Rhys Brownfield and Eddie McGinley both dotted down for Launceston to bring their side within two points of Barnes, but couldn’t find that extra edge to claim their first win of the season.

Bury St Edmunds 25-11 Worthing Raiders

Bury St Edmunds made it back to back wins at home thanks to four second half tries.

Scores from Beau Gibson, Matthew Edison, Samuel Goatley and Christopher Snelling secured the win for Bury who were 3-6 behind at half-time.

Christopher Lord opened the proceedings with a penalty before Sean O’Hagan levelled the scores just before half an hour.

Samuel Hewick was yellow carded for Worthing, but Bury didn’t take advantage as O’Hagan the away side into the lead.

But, Bury took control after the break and put their foot down to seal their third win of the season.