Cinderford maintained their unbeaten record so far this season, but Cambridge rallied in the second-half and made them work hard for the victory.
The match was played in near perfect conditions and it got off to a pulsating start with three tries scored in the opening eleven minutes. First some quick hands released home scrum-half Mike Austin to score a try, which Reece Boughton converted. The visitors quickly responded with a try from hooker Ben Brownlie, which Joe Tarrant converted, before George Boulton put Cinderford back in front with a try that Boughton again converted. Play continued to be well contested, before the home went down the blindside and Will Baldwin showed good strength to dot down in the corner, with Boughton landing an excellent touchline conversion before kicking a penalty to make it 24-7 at the interval.
Austin scored his second try for Cinderford in the early stages of the second-half, which Boughton again converted. However, Cambridge continued to pose plenty of problems with their very efficient driving maul and they replied with tries from Kieran Frost and a second from Brownlie. Jack Preece stole over for the home team’s fifth try after 68 minutes, but once again the visitors refused to give up and Brownlie completed his ‘hat-trick’ from another maul, which Tarrant converted.
Cinderford had to defend their try line in the closing stages, but turnover ball and a kick ahead set up an attacking position and Boughton’s perfectly weighted cross-field kick was caught by Tim Andrew and his try completed the scoring in another highly entertaining match.
Cinderford; Mike Wilcox, Will Baldwin, Liam Hemming, George Boulton, Tim Andrew, Reece Boughton, Mike Austin, George Porter, Nathan Taylor, Tim Brockett, Tyler Jerrum, Jack Shields, Matt Lane, Aaron Ryan, Harry Hone.
Repls; James Elliot, Joe Mullis, Matt Gilbert, Jack Preece, James Forrester.