Ampthill restarted their Championship campaign with a win, edging out high-flying Nottingham in an 11 try thriller in what was a superb performance from The Mob at Dillingham Park.
The visitors got off to an incredible start, scoring the first try of the match inside the first minute. After Ampthill knocked on straight from the kick off, The Archers worked the ball to the right hand side, and centre Kegan Christian-Goss burst into the space and dotted down unopposed.
The Mob responded superbly to the early setback, scoring 15 points in the next 15 minutes to hold a 10 point advantage. Following a yellow card to Nottingham lock Jack Shine for a dangerous clearout in the 7th minute, Rhys Marshall finished off a powerful rolling maul two minutes later, and Josh Barton’s scored his first points of the match with a 13th minute penalty. The Ampthill fly-half then intercepted a loose pass near the Nottingham try line just two minutes later, and strolled across the try line.
Nottingham responded with their 2nd try of the match five minutes later to reduce the deficit to 3 points, after full-back Jack Stapley managed to bounce of a last ditch tackle to ground the ball underneath the sticks.
The Mob secured the try bonus point on the half hour mark, after scoring 2 more first half tries in quick succession. Off the back of their own scrum inside the Nottingham 22, A brilliant exchange of offloads created the space for Valentino Mapapalangi to charge across the try line in the 24th minute, and another rolling maul led to a second Rhys Marshall try six minutes later, with him peeling off the back to dive across the line.
The Archers had the last say in the half in the 37th minute, after quick tapping a penalty on the halfway line, and following superb hands, Matthew Arden was sent into the clear and crossed the whitewash with ease, reducing the deficit to 29-19 once he simply converted his own try.
Nottingham pulled an incredible comeback in the opening 17 minutes of the second half, scoring 13 unanswered points to retake the lead. Following a yellow card to Ampthill No.8 Valentino Mapapalangi, Arden slotted a penalty two minutes later to get The Archers within a converted score. In next 10 minutes, experienced winger Harry Graham applied two superb finishes to edge the visitors 32-29 ahead, despite two missed conversions from Arden.
The last 15 minutes of the match quite simply belonged to Ampthill, scoring 14 unanswered points to secure a bonus-point victory. After Jack Shine was shown a second yellow card and a red card in the 66th minute for a cynical piece of play near their own try line, Ampthill scored their 5th try of the match three minutes later. A looping pass from Josh Barton found Oran McNulty on the left hand side, who evaded the tackler to dot down in the corner. Despite a yellow card to Sione Va’enuku and playing the last eight minutes with fourteen men, Ampthill secured the win after being awarded a penalty try in the 78th minute, following a dangerous high tackle on Mason Cullen near the Nottingham try line.
Speaking after his side’s victory Ampthill head coach Paul Turner said, “Credit to our players today, as a squad everybody really upped their game today. It’s a good win against a side 4th in the table, and winning games like that will help us get out of habit of losing games when we’re in front”.
Ampthill Points Scorers
Tries: Marshall 9, 30; Barton 15, Mapapalangi 24, McNulty 69, Penalty 78
Conversions: Barton 16, 25, 31, 70
Penalties: Barton 13
Attendance: 894
Carlsberg Britvic and 1664 Biere Man of the Match: Fraser Strachan
