Mixed emotions for Cambridge in Ampthill defeat

Second-half rally not enough for Cambridge

Defeat brings with it a natural sense of disappointment and yet it was a strange atmosphere at Volac Park on Saturday.

The regret from the Cambridge players and coaching staff was palpable after their 20-10 home defeat to Ampthill, but then there was a more buoyant mood from the supporters.

It was a difficult performance to place as Ampthill were in the top five and are widely felt to have one of the best squads in the division.

It was always anticipated that it would be a tough afternoon for the hosts, but the way they took on the Bedfordshire side and battled to the bitter end was impressive.

They fronted up in all departments, with the attacking line-out working well, and the defensive one far better than in recent times, while there was very little between the two teams at the scrum.

Ampthill were visibly bigger than Cambridge but the ferocity and intensity of the tackling did not suggest such was the case.

However, when they do their post-match analysis Cambridge will see that they ultimately coughed up the points that let Ampthill depart with the win. And for that reason, the sense of disappointment was probably justified.

Working so hard to negate a team takes huge effort, especially one with the reputation of Ampthill, so having done a lot of the hard work, to throw the scores away is somewhat careless.

All three Ampthill tries were really down to Cambridge’s errors.

The first came from a penalty try for an infringement at an Ampthill catch and drive from a line-out, and that was around 17 minutes into the first half.

Cambridge did not let their heads drop and were on parity with their opponents for the rest of the half, only to concede a soft try just before the break.

Chasing back to gather a long kick, the wet conditions made it difficult for George Furbank to field cleanly and as he battled to gather the ball, Bedford’s Nigel Baker pounced and passed to Steffan Jones to touch down, giving Ampthill a 12-0 lead at half time.

Joe Tarrant kicked a penalty early in the second half to make it 15-0 to Ampthill, but Cambridge once again showed their resilience.

They earned an attacking line-out in the Ampthill 22, and from the subsequent catch and drive, Jake McCloud grounded the ball to reduce the arrears.

And then from a solid scrum just outside the 22, play was moved left and then back to the right for Lawrence Hutchinson to dot the ball down in the corner.

It meant Cambridge had closed the gap to 15-10 with 20 minutes remaining, and the match seemed there for the taking for the hosts.

However, the clarity of thought seemed to disappear and from good field positions errors saw them pushed back deep into their own half, and it was compounded when Tom Trotter’s miss-placed pass went back to his own dead ball area.

Ampthill had the five-metre scrum and after a succession of penalties at the set piece, the visitors went right for Ben Gulliver to touch down in the corner.

It was a particularly bitter pill to swallow for Cambridge as from being in a position to mount a bid to win the game, they had managed to squander a losing bonus point.

Harsh lessons will certainly have been learnt as despite much promise in the game, their own errors proved costly and gave Ampthill the opportunity to capitalise.