National 3 South West

MARTIN Nutt ran in a hat-trick of tries as Oxford Harlequins produced their best display of the season to win 45-19 at Bristol’s Old Redcliffians.

Young flanker Ramen Farhani was named man-of-the-match, but this was a great team display from Quins, who rallied from 19-7 down.

Quins made eight changes, five positional, from the side selected in midweek, including handing a debut to Tongan World Cup player Sione Vaiomo’unga at flanker.

Left wing Dave Harris squeezed over for Redcliffians’ opening try on ten minutes.

Three minutes later, Farhani off-loaded for centre Anthony Cope to score, fly half Joey Todd’s conversion giving Quins a 7-5 lead.

The hosts hit back with tries from right wing Chris Thompson and fly half Mike Schropfer, full back Joe Hall converting both.

Quins raised their game to earn a 21-19 half-time lead.

Firstly, No 8 Adam Pearson was driven over in the corner, then centre Nutt sliced through the defence, Todd converting both tries.

Redcliffians had flanker Scott Coster yellow-carded before Quins scrum half Jack Cosins dived over for Todd to convert.

Schropfer was red-carded for punching on 65 minutes and Quins wrapped up victory with three tries in the final ten minutes.

Nutt grabbed the first two, the latter created by Todd and Cope.

Todd converted Nutt’s hat-trick try then left wing Tom Jelly caught a cross-kick at top speed to sprint in.

Chinnor made it ten wins from ten with a 23-18 victory at Barnstaple.

Centre Matt Goode’s try on the hour mark, converted by fly half James Cathcart, sealed victory in North Devon.

Barnstaple took the lead with a try from flanker Winston James, who was driven over on 11 minutes.

After disrupting a home scrum, Chinnor capitalised with centre Sam Stoop’s 24th-minute try, converted by Cathcart.

Three Cathcart penalties put Chinnor seemingly in control with a half-time lead of 16-5.

But Barnstaple roared back with a try from centre Mark Galliford, converted by hooker Josh Squire, who added two penalties for an 18-16 lead.

A poor Barnstaple line-out gave Chinnor the chance to create Goode’s decisive try.

The visitors then showed great discipline to hold out in defence without conceding a penalty.