Foresters lose out after Knight goes off

CINDERFORD 19 LAUNCESTON 32

PAUL Knight’s sinbinning proved the turning point against Launceston as brave Cinderford were denied any points in their National One opener at Dockham Road.

The Foresters were leading 19-18 before their skipper was shown a yellow card for dropping a knee on a player on the ground and the Cornish All Blacks took advantage.

Two converted tries in the last six minutes turned the screw further on a tiring home side, who begin the new campaign with a home defeat.

Phil Greenaway’s men face a daunting prospect at big-spending Esher following the setback which is a stark contrast to last season’s opening fixtures, which yielded a victory and a losing bonus point.

Each team traded penalties in the first five minutes with the influential former Exeter fly-half Tony Yapp opening the scoring before new signing Ali Bressington replied for Cinderford.

Cinderford got the game’s first try on 19 minutes when hooker Nigel Matthews was bundled over by his forwards and following a lengthy conversation between the officials, the score was given.

Bressington added another two points but Launceston levelled the scores four minutes later when wing Kieron Lewitt stepped inside to score the first of three tries and Yapp converted.

Five minutes before the break, Bressington kicked three more points for Cinderford to lead 13-10 at half-time.

Bressington increased the lead to six after 46 minutes but Yapp responded six minutes later to tie it up again.

Lewitt got his second try on 56 minutes in controversial circumstances following a suspicious-looking forward pass, which halted Cinderford’s players, but Yapp was off target.

Bressington pushed his side ahead on the hour with his fifth kick from five before the crucial sinbinning of Knight four minutes later.

The Foresters looked to have survived the 10 minutes they were down to 14, but with Knight prowling on the sidelines, Launceston struck the killer blow.

Jason Luft showed a clean pair of heels to Cinderford’s defence to touch down with Yapp extending the deficit to six with minutes remaining.

With Cinderford pushing forward in the dying moments, Yapp’s cross-field kick found Lewitt for his hat-trick.

CINDERFORD: A Bressington; O Winterbottom, R Cumbers, D Scourfield, A Nicholls; D Pointon, P Knight; J Meadows, N Matthews, A Deacon; E King, C Jones; A Nicholls, C McNeil, D Hall. Replacements: P Kennedy, A Duncan, D Bufton, A Bryan, R Haile.

LAUNCESTON: M Roberts; J Luft, R Western, E Lewsey, K Lewitt; T Yapp, L Webb; T Mathias, D Semmens, B Pow; D Chambers, B Jenkins; J Lord, T Rawlings, S Hocking. Replacements: J Bolt, T Hurdwell, B Hilton, M Rawlings, J Fabian.

Source: this is gloucesterhire