A's bounce back in dynamic style

Ampthill got back on track with a resounding 46-15 National One victory at Esher on Saturday.
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The first half was tight, the physical confrontations extending beyond the forwards but the second period saw Ampthill step up a gear and score 24 unanswered points.

Esher took the early lead via a penalty with the Amps responding with one of their own from fly half Joe Tarrant.

The 15th minute saw centre Nawaqaliva receive what most visitors considered a harsh yellow card.

However, this was the trigger for A’s to produce a fine backs move from the home 10 with the ball moved through the hands swiftly for full-back Stef Jones to score an unconverted try on 18 minutes.

Esher responded with a try after a poor exit gave them a soft launch on the A’s 22, the conversion drifting wide.

With Ampthill restored to a full complement and back in the hosts’ red zone on 29 minutes, a series of phases resulted in Tarrant darting through to touch down under the posts and convert his own try.

Yet another poor exit enabled Esher to respond with a converted try minutes later.

The half ended with Amps back in the Esher 22, a fine handling move saw the ball moved from right to left touchline for wing Sam Baker to cross and Tarrant to add the extras for 22-15 at oranges.

The second half belonged to A’s with a second unconverted try to Jones, a sublime individual try to replacement scrum-half Mitchell, who broke on the blindside and beat three defenders.

There was also a second for Baker after several waves of forward phases, as Tarrant converted the latter two having also added a penalty.

On 76 minutes lock Braband received a yellow card but unlike the previous week the defence held firm.

Director of rugby Mark Lavery said: “After last week’s horror show we needed a response and got one. It was a much better performance with forwards and backs cohesive, accurate and error-free.”

A’s are without a league game this weekend.

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