A third consecutive away win, secured on a balmy afternoon with a strong sun setting over the Brecon Beacons. Cinderford lies just 5 miles from the River Wye and the Welsh border. but don't be confused by the accent. This is a proud "Glorster" community rooted firmly in England. The full colour page in the match programme sets out the the simple but telling proposition "Cinderford Town Council and Cinderford RFC - working together to improve the community".
That we scraped a win can be attributed to character and attitude plus it has to be said two gift-wrapped tries from the home side. Still that was probably a fair exchange for the yellow cards sending our influential back row players, Dave Archer and Darren Fox to the sin bin. Young and student referee Luke Pearce, penalised both for "killing the ball", harsh for one, fair for the other. But given the 65% possession enjoyed by Cinderford, defensive players were at a premium and a weakened backrow was the state of affairs at the end of both halves. Add 7:2 penalties for the home side in the last 30 minutes of the game and the levels of tension v frustration pulsated along both touchlines. Just writing up the events has added 20+ points to my blood pressure.
So take a deep breath and begin at the beginning. Cinderford deserve to be in National 2. Not only a well organised club but they have secured players that were fully professional with Premier clubs. At 3,4 and 5 are the legendary Deacon, Fidler and Cornwall. Such a backbone had its impact on this game, forcing Cambridge to endure long periods without the ball. Whilst there were opportunities from the 24 set pieces, the opposition lifted our front row, producing 2 turnovers out of 6. The proportion applied also to the lineouts with 6 lost out of 18 although Cinderford also conceded a handful themselves. So much technically to work upon in the coming week once the DVD footage has been analysed. Time yes to be critical but we won one more and that's what matters if we are to be pushing for promotion this season. The test is to win games in the heartlands of the community game - the Forest of Dean, The Yorkshire Dales and Cornwall. In that we are on track. So far so good.
We kicked off into a gentle but deceptive breeze that limited the range of our kickers, led to four 22 metre drop outs and an equal number of field kicks straight into touch. Home advantage is underlined in such contradictory conditions. It is the strength 20 metres plus above the pitch that is undervalued by the visitor and mostly instinctively understood by the resident kickers. Mounts Bay last week just never came to terms with the strong south westerly at WRP. You would have expected better from a seafaring community.
From the first serious attacking movement Cinderford scored. Fly Half,ex Hartbury College, Tim Stevenson used his visible strength to break clear of the Cambridge cover defence setting up outside centre Dewi Scourfield with an accurate long pass. Impressive in two senses, the Cambridge defence looked vulnerable and on a perfect day, Cinderford had backs to match the calibre of their forwards. This was not going to be an easy game so forget the recent cricket scores and grind grind grind. Then the first gift of the day. A second threatening attacking inside our 22 metre line, a well directed try scoring pass once again from the fly half but neatly intercepted by Ben Patston. The reversal gave him a 10 metre start and he maintained a safe gap from his pursuers to salmon leap and score under the posts. An uncomplicated level score and so it remained up to half time.
Cinderford 7 Cambridge 7
It is often the incidental decisions that have a major bearing on the outcome of a match. As at Westcombe, CRUFC choose to retire to the dressing room, the home side remaining on the pitch, milling around, relaxing and listening it would seem with half an ear to the review and second half briefing. Just not again a coincidence. Cambridge united stormed into an early 14 point lead with two tries. The first after just 3 minutes as Bomber Lombaard caught the precision cross kick from his fly half, Craig Evans. Chris shrugged off his opposing wing and drove 30 metres for the line. His sixth try of the season and a try with impact and significance in this closely fought game. Then another error under pressure from Tim Stevenson. His attempts at a break had been many but unsuccessful. His Plan B was a looped kick over the Cambridge defence that fell short and on second grasp was cuddled safely by Shanners to run in and score from just 10 metres out. Two conversions from eagle eye Ben Patston and on our way to a 4 try bonus point. It failed to materialise as possession became the scarce resource. We hung on in there, credit for courage and commitment under heavy enemy fire, the best example for me coming from a crunching tackle by Callum Powell. Cinderford began the comeback with an individual break and try from the third Simpson-Daniel, Charlie, on as replacement scrum half. Then a penalty kicked by full back Daniel Trigg after two conversion successes. His second penalty attempt would have narrowed the gap to 1 point but it drifted wide - a final indicator that there was wind resistance up there somewhere. I made the second half some 47 minutes long , the last 5 minutes being eased somewhat by an Andy Orugboh(welcome back) turnover ball, James Ross retired with a serious knee injury and Captain Fox a touchline spectator. Not quite a ship on the rocks but too tense for most of us and particularly for me the apparent time authority on such occasions. How long to go Mal? Well on my watch ----. The referee awarded a rare penalty to the besieged and Stefan Liebenberg, checking the remaining time, kick directly in to touch to end the game.
Cinderford 17 Cambridge 21.
Elsewhere Wharfedale proved a hostile environment for Birmingham and Redruth notched up their 6th win out of six. Blaydon visit us next week and Launceston have a harder fixture in Solihull. Our substantial positive points difference will continue to give us precedence when league points are shared. So they may be by the time we invade Cornwall for the first time thisseason in late November. Pete Kolakowski, Rob Hurrell, Luke Fielden, Andy Phillips, Adam Barnard and Tom Powell should be back in full contention soon with anticipated and hopeful first starts for Karl Rudski and Matt Miles. So far indeed so very good.
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