CRFC U16s vs Hucclecote U16s_County Cup FINAL_25April2010
GRFU County Cup FINAL
Cinderford RFC U16 14
Hucclecote RFC U16 15
Hucclecote edged Cinderford by the slenderest of margins at 15-14 to win an ill tempered U16s County Cup Final on Sunday in which five yellow cards were shown to the players of both team (three to Hucclecote and two to Cinderford) and where the Hucclecote head coach Bob Fowkes was also red carded early in the second half and sent to the stands by match referee Tim Lawson.
The match started more than twenty minutes behind schedule after an injury to a player in the previous age group final required an ambulance to be called to the player on the pitch. When the game finally started, Hucclecote got off to a flyer; chasing down a hacked-on loose ball that took a wicked bounce to wrong foot the covering Cinderford defence and present a simple run in to the left of the posts for a converted try that gave the Gloucester side a 7-0 lead in only the second minute. Hucclecote then extended their lead to 10-0 with a penalty in front of the posts in the tenth minute.
Two minutes later, Cinderford’s Chance Ridler made a superb run up the left wing from inside his own half, jinking inside and outside the cover defence and outpacing everyone to race through and cross to score, 5-meters the left of the uprights. Jack Hopkins added the extras to pull the deficit back to 10-7.
After twenty minutes of this testosterone fuelled match, tempers eventually boiled over on the pitch and Hucclecote saw two of their players yellow carded as a result.
To their enormous credit, Hucclecote defended superbly with just thirteen players on the park but were stretched to the limit when quick handling across the Cinderford backs from left to right saw Adam Wilce draw the last defender and offload in contact to Tom Ward racing up in support on the outside, for Ward to collect the ball at pace and run in unopposed near the right corner flag to put Cinderford in front. Cinderford’s outside half and man of the match Jack Hopkins then added a fine touchline conversion to make it 14-10 to Cinderford. However, an unforced error by Cinderford at the restart gifted Hucclecote the opportunity to register an immediate response with an unconverted try in the left corner and a 15-14 lead nine minutes before half time.
Tempers frayed again early in the second half and a touchline incident brought to the attention of the referee by the Assistant referee led to the Hucclecote head being red carded. Minutes later Hucclecote then saw another player, their third, sent to the sin bin, this time for a late tackle. The Cinderford back row of Louis Overthrow, Luke Crunden and Kyle Frowen worked superbly in defence to contain the more intensive and abrasive running of the Hucclecote ball carriers. No.8 Frowen had a particularly fine game in the contact areas, making some outstanding tackles and also in ripping the ball away from Huccelcote arms on a number of occasions to win valuable turnover ball for Cinderford.
The scoreless second half was not a pretty affair to watch and became increasingly fractured by a continuous string of penalties and unforced errors by both sides, slowing down the tempo and stifling the game. Fifteen minutes from the end, Cinderford were awarded a penalty, 30 yards out on the right. Jack Hopkins stepped up to strike the ball well and was desperately unlucky to see the ball strike the face of the left upright and rebound back into play and the score remained at 15-14.
Ten minutes from time, Chance Ridler was yellow carded for an unnecessary late tackle, born out of frustration. Then, seconds before the full time whistle, Jake Bonser was also sinned binned, for a seemingly inocuous infringement at a line out. With the referee deciding that no time at all would be added for any stoppages or injuries during the second half, in order to pull back time for the following match scheduled, the game was blown up early and Hucclecote celebrated a hard fought cup victory they just about deserved.
Match Report & Photos: Simon Hawkins
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April 28, 2010
