Caldy RFC Vs Hartpury - Championship Rugby

MATCHDAY

PROGRAMME

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20/01/24 2PM PATON FIELD

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President’s welcome

Graham armitage

A very Happy New Year to you all and especially to our visitors from Hartpury today for this our first home league fixture of 2024 in this our centenary season. This will be our third encounter since promotion to the Championship last season and so far our visitors have had the best of it winning both home and away last season. I’ll come back to Hartpury later in these notes.

Last weekend Caldy travelled to Ealing for what appeared to be an extremely tricky encounter on the road against a fully professional team.

After yet further train cancellations Caldy eventually made it to the game on time having made a number of team changes as a result of both injury and squad rotation. This appeared to be a brave if necessary call with Ealing naming one of their strongest sides this season with 3 internationals in the starting lineup including Billy Twelvetrees whom we last met a number of years ago when playing for Leicester Lions. The game began almost predictably with Ealing throwing everything into the mix with some exceptional play resulting in a 21 point lead within 12 minutes of the start of the game. Caldy however

found their feet and an exceptional break through midfield by fly half Rhys Hayes was clinically finished by Mike Cartmill to bring them back into the game. The remainder of the half was more evenly balanced with Caldy scoring a further converted try by Ollie Hearn but with the home side scoring off counter breaks, Ealing led comfortably at half time.

Caldy started the second half with multiple team changes and took time to settle before a rousing rally in the last quarter saw them score two further converted tries. Joe Murray scored with a darting solo break and a typical try by Matt Gallagher off the back of a maul snatched a very creditable losing bonus point with Ben Jones converting all 4 tries.

Whilst Ealing fully deserved their win, this was a very creditable performance by the Caldy squad as a whole, some of whom were experiencing rugby at this level for the first time. Although this was a truly team effort, special mention must be made of Sam Olyott and Martin Gerrard in the second row who both played for the whole game and also Ciaran Booth who with his back row colleagues including skipper JJ

President’s welcome

Continued...

Dickinson were always prominent.

Today as previously mentioned we welcome Hartpury University RFC and their committee to Paton Field.

Hartpury rugby basically started at the beginning of this millennium and since then the club has made great strides forward, gaining promotions through the league rugby system and until fairly recently dominated university rugby nationally. The Club gained promotion to the Championship in 2017 and have been an ever present in the league since.

The club has close ties with both Gloucester and Bristol Rugby and consists of largely current or former students together with dual registered players who will no doubt be formidable opponents for the fixture this afternoon. Hartpury have had a mixed season so far with some good home victories and an exceptional away win at Coventry. We welcome their President Barbara Buck and other officials for lunch today and as always hope that they enjoy their visit to Paton Field with the proviso that we intend to spoil the party by coming out on top for the first time this afternoon.

Off the pitch our planning application

to upgrade the clubhouse is still being processed but remains at a sensitive stage with the planning authorities for the time being at least. Our thanks go to those involved in this protracted process in the hope that we can produce a facility worthy of the standard of rugby that the club has achieved in terms of league status. In the interim we are indebted to our sponsors and financial backers whose generosity in the past has not only led to our success but whose continued support in the absence of meaningful funding from the rugby authorities has made this financially possible.

Our thanks must also go to our team of ground staff, the Last of the Summer Wine (LOSW for short), who freely give enormous amounts of their time to produce and maintain the standard of pitches that we all possibly take a little too much for granted. We should all appreciate the wonderful aspect and playing facilities that the club now has to

President’s welcome

Continued...

offer together which even with our restricted social facilities we can continue to enjoy.

I need to mention the considerable contribution of all those involved in the day to day operation and management of the club including our bar, catering and other members of staff, particularly on match days such as today and without whom the club could not effectively function.

Thanks also to all of our members, supporters and spectators for your incredible support again this season, your contribution cannot be underestimated and is an essential part of our effort to maintain our status going forward.

Today's game is another opportunity to get fully behind our team and give the players the positive vocal support and encouragement they deserve.

We are always in need of further assistance in terms of sponsorship or help in whatever form and if you wish to become a member/purchase a season ticket or assist us in any other way please contact one of our officials or refer to our website for further details.

Finally, I sincerely hope that you all enjoy your visit to Caldy today, come win lose or draw, and that we can all fully appreciate the fantastic level of rugby now on offer at Paton Field. Let’s celebrate this wonderful game of ours in the spirit intended, make new friends and renew old friendships and hopefully share a few drinks in the traditional way after the game.

Graham Armitage

Today’s Opponents

HARTPURY RFC

3 to watch!

WILL Crane

Hartpury BUCS Gloucester Cornish Pirates 2x BUCS WINNER

(c) Northampton Saints Wasps England U20's Tommy Matthews

Today’s Opponents

HARTPURY RFC

3 to watch!

Josh Gloucester Gray Jersey

England U18's/20's u20's Grand slam 22-23

The caldy Catchup

Plenty of content to catch up on this week on our socials, tune in to hear interviews from Head Coach Matt Cairns on our trip to London to face league leaders Ealing and what lessons we learnt while away!

A View From

The Bank More Colts Graduates!

Fantastic to see a bumper year of Senior Colts making their way through to 2nd team rugby, with Harry Bishop and Harry Evans joining Harry Lightfoot and Ben Leek in the 2nd team’s outing at Macclesfield last week, great effort lads, keep working and no doubt we’ll see some of you in the Championship in no time!

A View From

The Bank Continued...

That Friday Feeling

John Lyon

Last week Caldy travelled to the capital to play league leaders Ealing Trailfinders on their all-weather pitch. Ealing had their strongest squad available, full of players with Premiership and International experience. Keeping the score respectable would have been an achievement, for the Ravers to pick up a 4 try bonus point on the road was beyond expectations.

Arriving late due to train issues, a somewhat underpowered Caldy squad, missing a clutch of senior players, were 21 points down after only 15 minutes. But how they rallied!

After just about surviving the initial Ealing onslaught, Caldy found a foothold in the game with two first half tries by Mike Cartmill and Ollie Hearn.

Emptying the bench for the final 15 minutes secured the crucial bonus point with tries

by Joe Murray and Matt Gallagher picking up another so valuable Championship point.

Tomorrow the Ravers are going to play only their fourth home Championship match of the season at Paton Field against a strong Hartpury side.

The visitors from Gloucester sit one place and one point above Caldy in the Championship table with very similar playing records. They are exceptionally good travellers. Strong performances on the road, including two thumping bonus point away wins against Coventry and Cambridge, have seen Hartpury pick up 12 points from their 5 away fixtures.

Caldy’s Director of Rugby Gareth Davies knows just how vital Caldy’s home support will be against the West Country outfit. “There is no doubt that the noisy and passionate

That Friday Feeling

John Lyon

support from the ‘Bank’ got us over the line in our last home game, the pre-Christmas win over a full time Doncaster Knights side. It was special. A home crowd lifts any team, but our crowd is even more important for Caldy. We are always the underdogs in every Championship fixture and tomorrow is no exception. We have never beaten Hartpury and for sure we will need everything the Bank can give us.” Tomorrow’s game against Hartpury will be the featured match in Sunday’s Rugby Paper with pictures being taken by Caldy’s Kieran Free. Please do give Kieran a crowded and vibrant ‘Bank’ for his backdrop.

This week there is no game for Caldy’s 2nd xv. Last week a much-reshuffled 2nd xv side picked up an away win at Macclesfield to keep their long unbeaten run going. But it was

oh so close. An exciting contest saw the lead frequently change and with only a minute or so to go the young Ravers were 20-19 down. Up stepped Freddie Arista to kick a tricky penalty to close out the win 20-22. The unbeaten run now stretches to eighty-seven games.

Finally, after this week’s shock news that Gloucester’s Louis Rees-Zammit, Northampton’s Harry Mallinder and Coventry’s George Smith have all quit Rugby Union to join the NFL’s International Player Pathway, Caldy’s Head Coach Matt Cairns is delighted to confirm that for the time being Caldy’s Nick Royle has decided to remain at Paton Field.

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Match Report

John Mallon

DESPITE a 54-28 defeat Caldy will be pleased to have taken a four try bonus point away at league leaders Ealing Trailfinders.

The full timers took the lead in the opening minutes with two tries in six minutes from Rayn Smid with the winger's speed to much for Caldy's defence.

The London side scored their third try in the 12th minute when Lloyd Williams capitalised on Richard Hardwick's line break.

Caldy scored their first try of the afternoon after a chaotic first quarter hour when Mike Cartmill darted through the midfield to score under the posts.Ealing secured their bonus point when Jonah Holmes was left with acres of space to score on the opposite wing after a maul.

Match Report

John Mallon

Ollie Hearn took advantage of Ealing being reduced to 14 men to slide in for Caldy’s second of the afternoon.

However, Ealing hit back almost immediately with their fifth try of the afternoon through Ruben Bird-Tullock’s weaving run which finished off a great team move.

It only took six minutes of the second half for Ealing to extend their lead when Holmes barrelled over the line.

As the match neared its conclusion, Caldy secured the bonus point with two great tries in the final five minutes at the end of the match both expertly scored by Joe Murray.

Caldy's next match is at home against Hartpury - the team from Gloucestershire are one place above the Ravers in a very tight Championship mid table with only nine points separating third and ninth place.

Caldy 23/24 season

Caldy Coaches Report

Matt Cairns

Gareth Davies

Matt Cairns

Andrew soutar Richard Vasey

This

WEEKEND

Today’s Squads

Caldy

Today’s Squads

Hartpury RFC

Thank you for coming We hope you enjoy the game

#ravers