Cinderford just edged past Caldy in an excellent game between two very good sides that was a credit to National One rugby.
The match was full of incident with three penalty tries and a total of five yellow cards. After some early pressure by the visitors it was the home team who opened the scoring when George Boulton broke through and found Mike Austin, who in turn put Tim Andrew away for a try under the posts, which Reece Boughton converted. The referee then took centre stage as he awarded Caldy two penalty tries in the space of five minutes and issued yellow cards to Cinderford’s Jack Preece and Liam Hemming. Down 13 men the home side held firm and soon after Preece had returned they too were awarded a penalty try again for a deliberate knock-on, which resulted in a yellow card for Caldy’s Nick Royle. This levelled up the scores at 14-14 and despite another yellow card for visiting hooker Ed Stagg it remained unchanged up to the interval.
With all to play for it was Cinderford who started the better in the second-half and after a yellow card for Caldy’s Adam Aigbokhae some strong pressure near their opponents line the ball saw the ball go out wide to Andrew who forced his way over for his second try in the corner, which was well converted from the touchline by Boughton. Caldy responded well and deservedly levelled up the scoring once again when Lucas Titherington scored a try, which Ben Jones converted. Now it was Cinderford’s turn to raise their game and after series of pick and goes from the forwards No8 and captain Harry Hone forced his way over for the bonus point try. Boughton was then on target with a late penalty to give the home team a hard-earned victory.
Cinderford; Liam Hemming, Will Baldwin, Jamie Forrester, George Boulton, Tim Andrew, Reece Boughton, Mike Austin, George Porter, Sam Baker, Tim Brockett, Tyler Jerrum, Joe Dancer, Matt Lane, Jack Preece, Harry Hone.
Repls; James Elliot, Nathan Taylor, George Evans, Aaron Ryan, Will Hendy.