HARTPURY COLLEGE RFC PREVIEW

In 2000, Hartpury College Rugby Academy formed a partnership with Gloucester RFC, which culminated in the forming of Hartpury College RFC in 2004, when the club entered the leagues.

In the last ten years, they have progressed through the league system, having started on the ‘bottom rung’, culminating in their promotion to National League 1, as Champions of National 2 (South) last season. Gloucester RFC use the college as a permanent training base and several players from that club are dual registered with Hartpury.

Hartpury College RFC appear to have settled well in the league, winning 3 out of 6 games so far and are currently in 9th place in the league with 14 points, which includes a try bonus point and a losing bonus point. For the record, they have registered wins against Cinderford RFC (A, 10 – 23), Macclesfield RFC (A, 3 – 41) and Esher RFC (H, 30 – 19), whilst losing to Wharfedale RFC (H, 25 – 30), Richmond RFC (H, 17 – 59) and last weekend to Fylde RFC (A, 24 – 32).

Several Hartpury College RFC players have gone on to attain professional contracts and these include Dan Norton (England Sevens), Andries Pretorius (Cardiff Blues), Henry Trinder and Johnny May (Gloucester RFC) and Ed Shervington (Worcester Warriors), to name but a few.

From an ‘off the field’ perspective, ex England International Phil de Glanville is Director of Elite Sport at Hartpury College and again, just for the record, he was one of several Internationals from the conveyor belt of famous players produced out of Durham University in those days.

Local club Durham City RFC profited from a close relationship with the University and boasted a team that included soon to be Internationals in the form of centre Phil de Glanville (Bath RFC), centre Will Carling and prop Andy Mullins (both Harlequins RFC) and the flying winger Chis Oti (Wasps RFC), although why City’s No.8 at that time never quite made it to the higher echelons of the game.......we’ll never know !!

So Hartpury College RFC ‘s Director of Rugby John Barnes will be keen to ensure that his charges continue their steady progress in the league and it will be up to DMPRFC’s selected squad to try and temporarily halt that progression.

Not the best of weekends in the capital for DMPRFC, as the squad and loyal band of travelling support returned to the North East with nothing to show for their toils and the ‘tin hat’ to the trip was that the team bus broke down at Woodall Services and a replacement required, adding more time to an already long journey.

That, together with the ‘docking’ of 5 league points during the course of last week by the NCA/RFU, for fielding an unregistered player, made it not the best of weeks to date.

The game itself at Esher RFC’s Molesey Road HQ was there for the taking, but a conspiracy of mistakes at key times and a failure to turn 70% possession into points all added to uncharacteristically ‘bad day at the office’.

Added to that, flanker Will MACAULAY was stretchered off after only five minutes of his introduction as a replacement and although the full extent of his knee injury is not known at present, everyone at the club wishes him a speedy recovery.

Tries from winger Chris McTURK, full back Henry ROBINSON and Garry LAW, together with 2 conversions from the fly half, were not enough to take the spoils, resulting in a frustrating affair, but the signs are there for improvement. Certain key areas have been the focus of this week’s training schedule, with coaches John NEWTON and Danny BROWN also keen to move up the table.

This fixture is the first of two back to back home fixtures for the 1st XV. The following Saturday (25th October) we welcome Fylde to the Arena, A fixture that is being dedicated to the ladies of the Mowden family with the inaugural Mowden Ladies Day. Open to members and non members, we are offering a Ladies only pre match hospitality, click on the link below for full details.

Ladies Day Details