Cinderford RFC U16s vs Pil Harriers RFC U16s (Newport)_22nd November 2009

Cinderford RFC U16           53

Pil Harriers RFC U16           7

Cinderford RFC U16s overcame Pil Harriers RFC U16s of Newport by nine tries to one in a convincing 53-7 home win, played in occasionally miserable weather conditions at Cinderford Bridge.  Remarkably, all nine of Cinderford’s tries came from different players, which were also spread equally between the forwards(4) and backs(5). 

 Luke Crundon, Lewis Overthrow, Jake Drinkwater and Kyle Frowen all scored for the forwards, whilst Sam Watkins, Matt Masters, Jack Hopkins, Tom Ward and Jack Richards each scored for the backs, with Matt Masters(1/3), Jack Hopkins(2/2) and James Hadley(1/1) adding the extras.

Cinderford’s first try came after Sam Baker cleaned up loose ball at a lineout and Cinderford went on the attack through Luke Kell and then Kyle Frowen before a thumping charge by props Toby Farrier and Jake Drinkwater seriously tested the Pil defence, forcing a penalty on the right.  Sam Watkins took the tap penalty and fired the ball infield to No.10 Matt Master who sprinted around the stretched defence to score in the left corner.

Shortly afterwards a collision between players resulted in Pil’s No.5 having to leave the field with a suspected broken nose.  Pil did not have any forward replacements, so Matt Hawkins, normally found at No.6 for Cinderford, came on to play almost two thirds of the game in the second row for Pil and had a fine game.

Pil showed great team spirit and commitment, particularly in defence in the first half.  The visitors got onto the score sheet in the nineteenth minute following persistent penalties by Cinderford conceded valuable yardage and Pil took full advantage through their No.10, Dale Landers, who darted through from 7-meters out to score at the posts and followed up with the conversion to edge Pil into a slender 5-7 lead.  

Where Pil occasionally struggled was in attempting to contain Cinderford’s strong running forwards, who showed some excellent handling skills and offloads and also used the rolling maul to particularly good effect throughout this match.  Unfortunately, the scrums were uncontested from the start, as Pil were unable to field a full compliment of specialist front row players, which somewhat depowered Cinderford’s normally very effective scrummaging as a weapon.  Cinderford quickly regained the lead through some sustained power play by their forwards, who kept the ball alive and continually recycled from deep inside their own half, powering to the Pil 5meter line, where scrum half Sam Watkins retrieved the ball from a ruck and popped it into the path of openside flanker Luke Crundon, who crashed through the opposition defence to score.  Jack Hopkins converted to put Cinderford back in front at 12-7.

Minutes later, Jake Bonser stole a Pil lineout near half way, setting up another forwards drive, this time to within 10-meters of the Harriers try line. When the ball came back out, Sam Watkins fired it quickly to Sam Hatton at centre, who was tap tackled in his attempt to breach the Pil defence but managed to pop the ball up neatly off the deck to outside half Matt Masters, who fired a quick pass to Tom Ward on his outside, for Ward to race through and score in the left corner.  Masters then added the extras with a fine touchline conversion in the wind, stretching Cinderford’s lead to 19-7.

Sam Baker and Sam Watkins combined well in a blindside break up the right touchline, setting up hooker Jason Walding to drive over the try line, but Walding was held up by some determined last ditched defending by Pil.    However, four minutes later, Jack Hopkins bagged a try when he made a dart for the corner from 8-meters out and managed to place the ball squarely on the line at full stretch when tackled, to give Cinderford a comfortable 24-7 half time lead.

Early in the second half, Cinderford’s forwards turned Pil over on the floor and drove to the Harriers 5m line, where maul became ruck and scrum half Sam Watkins shaped to fire the ball infield to his waiting backs, but then  stepped inside, wrong footing the opposition defence and darting through to score unopposed at the posts. The kicking tee having been temporarily misplaced, Jack Hopkins converted with a drop kick; 31-7.

Unfortunately, two minutes later, having just been shown a yellow card for dissent Chance Ridler compounded his frustration with a follow up remark to referee Charlie Gayther, who was left with little option but to immediately up the card to a red, leaving Cinderford to play out the remaining half hour with fourteen men.  Five minutes later, the Pil Number 4 had a ten minute spell in the bin after several warnings by the referee for persistent offside infringements at the rucks.

Despite playing with a man down, Cinderford were on top for the balance of the match.  Lewis Overthrow came on as a replacement at the beginning of the second half and had a cracking game at Number six, scoring Cinderford’s sixth try, this one directly under the posts and converted by James Hadley to take the score on to 38-7.

Two minutes later, Jake Drinkwater powered to a try in the right corner after Luke Kell had made a cracking solo cross field run from 35yards out on the opposite side, only to be brought down just short of the line.  43-7.   Cinderford then worked a training ground lineout move near the Pil 5meter line and fired the ball quickly across the entire back line for Jack Richards to finish with a try on the corner; 48-7.   Cinderford’s final try came just before full time, when Kyle Frowen barged through from the back of a close range scrum and take the final score to 53-7.

Overall, this was a good performance by Cinderford, particularly by the forwards, most notably Jake Drinkwater, Jake Bonser and Lewis Overthrow, in very difficult weather and pitch conditions.

Also, well done to the match referee, 15-year old Charlie Gayther, who is more often to be found at scrum half for this Cinderford U16 side, but on this occasion officiated and showed why he is rapidly building a solid reputation as an up and coming rugby referee.

Cinderford were able to give all 25 available players a good run out in this match and, despite the heavy defeat, the Pil Harriers players never let their heads drop.  This was the first meeting between these two sides and Cinderford hope to travel to Newport for a reverse fixture some time in the New Year with this very pleasant bunch of lads, coaches and supporters.

Match Report & Photos: Simon Hawkins

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