1st XV 25 - 21 Cinderford

Match date	Saturday November 7, 2009
Match time	14:30
Match location	Away
Team	1st XV
Opponent	Cinderford

Player of the Match - Ben Gerry

Cinderford 21 Stourbridge 25                                    by Paul Smith

The parents of the Stourbridge under 12 XV discovered a whole new method for silencing excitable youth at Cinderford on Saturday.

The visiting youngsters, who supplied their senior colleagues with some enthusiastic and vocal support for 75 minutes, joined the rest of the travelling faithful in nervous silence, as Ben Hughes’ team frantically defended a four point lead.

Referee Darren Gamage’s final blast saw euphoria replace tension, allowing the 12 year old’s decibel count to revert to its more usual level - somewhere between shrill and deafening!

This valuable away win, at a ground that saw a Stour horror show last season, moves Hughes’ men into tenth place in the National 1 table, a point behind next week’s visitors Redruth.

It also improves the recent record to four wins in the last five games, allowing Director of Rugby Neil Mitchell to look ambitiously in an upwards direction, rather than nervously over his shoulder.

Indeed, fifth placed Blaydon, who were hammered at Stourton a month ago, now sit only four points ahead of Stour.

And with third placed Wharfedale also faltering, a continuation of the recent run could conceivably bring a Christmas position at the head of National 1’s semi pro clubs, in fourth place.

The first half was largely forgettable, dominated by aerial ping pong and handling errors.

Stour spurned three good try scoring opportunities through a lack of precision; two misplaced passes and an over-weighted chip, while the home side were unthreatening.

However, it was Cinderford that finally broke the deadlock on the half hour. Their leading try scorer, winger Reuben Haile, was driven over from close range after a missed tackle on giant centre Dewi Schofield.

Stour’s Leicester-esque lineout catch and drive looked threatening, causing home lock Chris Jones to twice illegally collapse an advancing maul, for which a ten minute cooling off period duly followed.

Spotting an opportunity, Stour immediately looked to stretch their numerically inferior opponents. But disaster struck, and the home side’s other winger, Robert Winchle, intercepted a floated pass and raced 85 metres to the line.

With Kurt Johnson lurking threateningly on the outside, Winchle’s intervention and subsequent score looked very much like a “14 pointer,” and a potentially crucial moment in the match.

A Jon Higgins penalty finally got the visitors on the board on the stroke of half time. This provided momentum which Tom Richardson continued directly after the restart, when he scuttled over from 30 metres for a converted score.

Higgins added a penalty, before the outstanding Ben Gerry, who was prominent throughout, as well as being at the heart of a cohesive set piece display, was driven over from a close range line out.

But these scores were interspersed with three penalties from home fly half Danny Pointon, which meant that Stour still trailed eight minutes from time.

Fittingly, the match was clinched by an outstanding long range try. Sensing space outside, Stour quickly moved a ruck ball from their own ten metre line, allowing Rupert Cooper to make a telling break.

His perfectly timed pass found Craig Richards, who scorched down the left touchline beyond the covering defenders for his seventh try of the campaign.

Higgins’ crucial conversion stretched the lead beyond three points, an advantage which was protected to the final whistle through some determined defence.

An enthralling second half held everyone spellbound, even managing to avert the attention of the crowd from the distraction provided by the RFU’s most glamorous touch judge!

photos by Peter Thompson and more photos on Ceri Davies's facebook - thanks to both 

Teams:

Cinderford – Bressington; Winchle, Plummer, Scourfield, Haile; Pointon, Arnott; Kennedy, Matthews (Duncan, 53), Deacon; Bufton, Jones; McNeil (Panoho, 70), Foden, Evans.

Reps – Smart, D.Knight, Boston.

Stourbridge – Richards, Tennuci, Robinson, Barkley, Johnson; Higgins, Richardson; Sturdy (Baker, 75), Gerry, Lawrence; Homer, Hughes; Rodley, Cooper, Pearson.

Scorers:

Cinderford: Tries – Winchle, Haile Cons – Pointon, Pens – Pointon (3)

Stourbridge: Tries – Richardson, Gerry, Richards, Cons – Higgins (2), Pens – Higgins (2)

Sin bin: Cinderford – Jones (37)

The Match in Pictures