Cinderford RFC U16s vs Abergavenny RFC U16s
Abergavenny RFC U16 22
Cinderford RFC U16 5
Cinderford RFC U16s faced the toughest of new season opening matches on Sunday, with an away match against an Abergavenny U16s side able to boast several Welsh regional youth development squad members amongst their number.
CRFC U16s' Adam Wilce with charges down an Abergavenny clearance attempt in the first half
As expected, the close quarter encounters were a little on the sporty side, particularly in the opening minutes as the two sides introduced themselves to each other on the field of play. Abergavenny came flying out of the blocks from the kick off and almost scored in the right hand corner in the seventh minute but were held up in goal by an outstanding tackle from Sam Baker. But, just over a minute later, Abergavenny crossed the line for a try near Cinderford’s posts, although there was more than a hint of a knock-on in the immediate build up that went unnoticed. With the following conversion the home side went into a deserved 7-0 lead.
Matt Masters offloading to Sam Hatton on his outside, as Kyle Frowen looks on in background
Cinderford started to get back into the game but occasional unforced errors led to the visitors handing over possession and playing too much of the game in their own half. Abergavenny doubled their lead ten minute later when they powered through a glaring gap in the Cinderford defensive line in the centre to score under the posts for a converted try. Abergavenny then stretched their lead to 17-0 with a penalty kick on the stroke of half time.
Abergavenny stretched further ahead early in the second half, when they showed great pace and strength in centre to make the initial break and create an overlap on the left that sent their No11 away up the touchline and over in the corner for an unconverted score to make it 22-0 to the home side.
This match saw several new Cinderford signings take to the field for the first time, including: Matt Masters, Sam Watkins, Kyle Frowen, Lewis Overthrow, Luke Crundon and Sam Hatton, all of whom made positive impressions on their debut. The injection of this new talent into the game at various intervals steadily brought the balance of play back around. When Cinderford pressure was rewarded with a scrum 10metres inside the Abergavenny half, Kyle Frowen broke up the blindside and drew the Abergavenny cover defence before offloading a perfectly timed pass to scrum half Sam Watkins on his outside, and Watkins burst over for a try on his debut.
When measured in isolation, the second half finished all square at 5-5, with both sides much more evenly balanced and neither team able to add further points to the scoreboard during the last 25minutes of this match.
