Ampthill came from eight points down at half–time to secure their third straight Champ Rugby win, edging out London Scottish 38-32 in an 11 try thriller on the Olney Field.
Despite Ampthill dominating the territory in the early stages, the Exiles opened the scoring with the first try of the match in the seventh minute. After a loose pass from the Mob near their own 22 was pounced on by the visitors, the ball was offloaded to scrum-half Dan Nutton, who sprinted away to dot down underneath the sticks.
The response from Ampthill was almost instantaneous, levelling the match at 7-7 just three minutes after falling behind. Once again an unforced handling error, this time from Scottish, gave the Mob the ball just outside the visitors 22, and following a superb run from Ollie Mullarkey, he offloaded inside to Angus Hall who had the time and space to finish with ease.
The Exiles took control of the match with 10 straight points in a 20 minute period to lead 7-20 with seven minutes remaining in the opening half. Noah Ferdinand finished in the right corner after Scottish claimed a high kick deep inside Ampthill territory in the 14th minute, and ten minutes later Sean Kerr slotted a penalty from near halfway to extend the lead to 8 points. In the 32nd minute Tom Wilstead exploited a huge hole in the Ampthill defence to score the visitors’ third try of the match to complete a superb spell from the Exiles.
The Mob reduced the half-time deficit to 12-20 with their 2nd try of the match in the 36th minute. Playing on penalty advantage, the ball was spread to Brandon Jackson on the left wing, and he showed great footwork to beat his man and score in the corner. London Scottish Bailey Ransom co-captain was shown a yellow card after the try for a high tackle on Josh Barton in the build-up.
Ampthill took advantage of playing with an extra man in the early stages of the second half, reducing the arrears to one point with their third try of the contest. Just moments after charging down a clearing kick from Scottish, the Mob charged down Dan Nutton’s box kick near his own try line, which was claimed by Harrison Courtney, who then crashed over the whitewash underneath the posts in the 44th minute.
The Mob took the lead for the first time in the 51st minute following a simple finish from Brandon Jackson after a sublime flat pass from Finn Keylock, and in the process secured the try bonus-point. However, just six minutes later the visitors reinstated their one point advantage. Centre Ludo Kolade cut a great line to burst through the Ampthill defence and dive across the whitewash
The topsy-turvy second half continued, with Ampthill regaining the lead again just before the hour mark to lead 33-27. Following a superb line break from Angus Hall, he passed inside to Charlie West, who sprinted away and finished unopposed.
Scottish narrowed Ampthill’s lead to one point with ten minutes remaining with their 5th and final try of the afternoon. Following a yellow card to James Isaacs in the 69th minute for a cynical infringement near the try line, Hayden Hyde applied the finish in the left-hand corner after giving the ball width off the back of on attacking scrum.
Ampthill scored the 11th and final try of the match with seven minutes remaining after a stunning solo score from Finn Keylock. The young fly-half picked up the ball just inside the Exiles’ territory and showed outstanding speed and agility to evade all defenders in his path before sliding across the whitewash.
The Mob made a steal at the lineout deep in their own territory as the clock went into the red, and kicked the ball dead to continue their 100% winning record in December, and move up to 9th in the Champ Rugby table.
Speaking after his side’s victory on the Olney Field, Ampthill DoR Mark Lavery said, “I think the performance left a little bit to be desired, we’re conceding too many points so there is loads to work on. We started poorly and gave away some soft tries and the performance in comparison to last week was down 4 or 5%, but we discovered a little bit more of ourselves in the first 20 minutes of the second half and importantly we banked the 5 points”.
Ampthill Points Scorers
Tries: Hall 10, Jackson 36, 50; Courtney 44, West 59, Keylock 73
Conversions: Keylock 11, 45, 51, 60
Attendance: 807
Poretti Man of the Match sponsored by Carlsberg Britvic:Charlie West