Cinderford Match Report

Cirencester 22 Cinderford 19

On Sunday an illness and injury depleted Cinderford U14s side, missing eight regulars and playing their first match in four weeks, travelled to Cirencester for a closely contested match that was narrowly edged by the home side.

Neither side gave much ground in the opening exchanges but Cirencester opened the scoring when some missed tackles by the Forest side allowed Cirencester to breakaway down the left wing to score an unconverted try in the corner for 5-0. Cirencester then doubled their lead with another unconverted score to make it 10-0 and put the visitors on the back foot.

Cinderford struck back with some sustained pressure inside the Cirencester half, rucking to within 5meters of the Cirencester try line before being awarded a scrum. Cirencester managed to nick the put in but Cinderford’s Jake Bonser, having moved to No.8, charged down the attempted clearance kick and Sam Baker, playing at flanker, darted through to drop on the ball for a try that brought the scores back to 10-5.

Half Time: Cirencester 10 Cinderford 5

In the second half Cirencester continued with their early game plan, committing Cinderford’s defence in the centre before attacking the overlap down the left wing and they soon stretched their lead with an unconverted score in the corner to make it 15-5.

Cinderford fought back heartily and, when securing their own attacking lineout ball on the Cirencester 10meter line, the Foresters drove the home side back with a powerful rolling maul that took them all the way to the try line, where Josh Lee dropped over to score a try, converted by Ryan Walding, to narrow the deficit to just three points at 15-12.

Unfortunately these efforts were quickly undone. When Cirencester followed up and secured their restart kick out wide, a couple of poor missed tackles from Cinderford allowed the home side to break infield and strike back immediately with a converted try under the posts to retake the advantage at 22-12.

A determined final flurry by Cinderford saw winger, Tom Ward collect the ball on the half way line and run around the outside of the Cirencester defence before cutting back infield to score a fine solo try under the posts which, when converted by Jack Hopkins, took the final score to 22-19 to Cirencester.