HORNETS Colts made it to the last 16 of the National Colts Cup courtesy of a three tries to one win against Ivybridge in a close fought win, repeating their victory away in last year’s semi-final.

HORNETS Colts made it to the last 16 of the National Colts Cup courtesy of a three tries to one win against Ivybridge in a close fought win, repeating their victory away in last year’s semi-final.

Ivybridge proved to be a stern test last year and a viewing of their unbeaten fixture list suggested they would offer a similar challenge this year and Hornets were not disappointed.

Hornets needed a good start and got that when after seven minutes, the pack took a scrum against the head, fed the ball left where full-back Tom Bradley broke the line before putting Matt Cornish over. Reece Watson converted and Hornets were 7-0 up.

The game remained evenly balanced until Hornets knocked on, but the ball ricocheted off an Ivybridge attacker behind the Hornets defence and good following up allowed Ivybridge to score under the posts and even the score.

Hornets needed to take a lead into the second half as they would be playing against the wind. They managed to do that in the last minute of the half. Kade Dillon broke from the scrum and managed to offload to ball backwards, Jermaine Jones picked up the ball and used his strength to drive over and make the half time score 12-7.

In the 14th minute of the second half, Hornets went further ahead when Chris Francis went over after a series of forward drives. With 15 minutes to go, Hornets lost a man to the sin bin. The penalty from the offence was successful and the score came back to 17-10. Ivybridge now needed more than a converted try as a draw was no good to them, due to Hornets having scored more tries

With Hornets down to 14 men and the wind behind, Ivybridge tried to push for territory with the aim of using their strong line-out skills. However, too many kicks failed to find their mark.

With seven minutes to go, Ivybridge pulled three back with a superb long-range penalty, setting up a torrid final few minutes. However, the Hornets defence was up to the mark and they were able to see the task through.

The AGM Services man of the match was Jonny Mitchell.

Hornets are away to Hertford on the weekend of February 12/13 in the next round. On Saturday, they return to league duty and play second-placed Taunton at home.