“The young lad who came and stepped in at number eight tonight, Evan Minto, he’s only 18 years old, he’s a student here, he came in off the bench, had to start at 8 I thought he was outstanding” coach Mark Cornwell sang the praise of Minto.
Cornwell kept his praises high for the youngster when he said “Great for the future, but also good to find something like that from our point of view that he can step into a championship team and he doesn’t look phased”.
Well done to last nights Man of the Match sponsored by @TheBeehivechelt , Evan Minto 👏🫡
— Hartpury RFC (@HartpuryRFC) October 12, 2024
Congratulations and enjoy your meal!#pury pic.twitter.com/MnCQRVrYpj
Hartpury were able to force three quick penalty scrums earlier on in the game, which gave the side something to build on, during the early, cagey opening stages of the match.
“To get through three penalties early doors was very good for the lads because sometimes I feel they don’t get the rewards should that’s down to the guy with the whistle.
“They’ve got a very strong scrum which means they always have got a good platform to play off.”
Cornwell was very complimentary of the Cambridge scrum as his team saw penalties go their way, most of the time.
Winning by 33 points wasn’t enough for the Hartpury coach, exclaiming that he thought his side could’ve done more as the added points do matter, because the league could come down to a points scored basis.
“I thought we left loads of points out there, at least 20 to 30 points.
FULL TIME SCORE | 43 – 10
— Hartpury RFC (@HartpuryRFC) October 11, 2024
Confident win 👏🔥#pury pic.twitter.com/m2zHonGGQU
“We’ve had to look at our defence over the last two or three weeks conceding too many tries, conceding too many points like last week we should’ve won that game…. I saw elements of us tonight what we worked on in training, we kept them out of times close to our line”.
Hartpury face Chinnor at the weekend away from home, a side that are new to the division, which causes lots of problems tactically, as you don’t know much about them.
“Well chinnor are new to us, we’ll have a look at what they have got to offer next week”.
Hartpury will take on Gloucester Rugby at home in the Premiership Cup in a couple of weeks when the Autumn internationals start for England.
Cornwell said, “I mean, it’s a different challenge altogether, that Premiership Cup will be great for us here get a massive crowd in, I’m sure Gloucester fans will come and fill this place out, and it will be a great atmosphere regardless of the result”.
That will be a huge test for the Championship side to get one over on local rivals Gloucester, there are just 5.3 miles between the two, so it should make for a good occasion on the day.
