Hill snap up Lydney’s MacRae
CONEY Hill have received an early Christmas present after signing vastly experienced winger Andy MacRae from National Two South side Lydney.
MacRae only joined Lydney from their Forest of Dean rivals Cinderford last summer making the Metz Way outfit his third club in less than six months.
The signing represents a major coup for Paul Morris’ men, attracting a player who has also played at National League team Henley Hawks.
Head coach Morris is delighted to have the big winger on board for their rapidly improving National Three South West campaign.
“He is a significant player for us and we are just pleased to get a player of his ability,” said Morris.
“This is probably the lowest league he has played in so he is an established player with vast experience at Lydney, briefly at Henley Hawks and at Cinderford.
“He comes into quite a variable mix of players.
“He is only 27 or 28 something like that so there is still a lot of good rugby left in him.
“He is going to enjoy it, we want all our players to enjoy it. It is a good time. It is a win-win situation all round.”
MacRae is currently a coach of the Coney Hill Under-10s team making the move from the Severnsiders a more logical step seeing as he lives nearby to the club.
He actually signed over a week ago and was due to play for Coney Hill’s second team last weekend but the game was postponed.
His brief spell at Lydney was curtailed by a run of various injuries which meant the Regentsholme faithful did not get to see him at his best.
He is currently on his way back from a series of knee and eye injuries and Morris says he will have to work hard to displace someone from the current in-form team.
“He has been injured so he has got to work his way back to full fitness,” Morris added.
“We are not in any hurry to rush him back and when he is ready he will be ready.”
MacRae is joining the club at the best possible time as the Metz Way side have won seven out of their last eight matches and shot up to seventh place in the table.
Hill, Lydney and Cinderford have seen a number of players swap colours recently with Mike Hart returning to Coney Hill from Cinderford last summer and Nevaro Codlin and Martin Knight departing Metz Way for Regentsholme.
Source:thisisgloucestershire
Eight-try Cinderford coast to cup glory
CINDERFORD 54 CONEY HILL 7
CINDERFORD showed the gulf in class between National Two and South West One with an eight-try demolition of Coney Hill in the County Cup final at the Prince of Wales Stadium.
Cinderford scored five tries in an exciting first period, but the second half was a stale affair.
Coney Hill tried hard to break through – Rory Baker showing some neat touches – but the Foresters were far too strong.
The scoring started as early as the first minute as Jaike Carter finished a sweeping move, the pace and power of which had Hill chasing shadows.
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After seven minutes, lovely work from Dewi Scourfield put James Copsey over for a well-worked try.
Danny Trigg missed a penalty attempt before Chris Hall barrelled over.
It was all Cinderford as Darren Wright’s strength saw him force the ball down after 14 minutes.
Hill stemmed the flow and, with former Cinderford player Mark Rimmer prominent, created some half chances.
However, normal service resumed after 22 minutes. Paul Knight skipped through to feed Copsey and a simple draw and pass put Nicholls over.
Just past the half hour mark, lovely football from Freddie Burns created a gap for himself and he was able to sidestep the full-back to score.
Four conversions from Trigg helped Cinderford to move 33-0 ahead.
Hill declined an easy three points in favour of a scrum under the Cinderford posts and their courage was rewarded when Leon Liggett twisted through and Rory Baker converted.
Good defensive work from Hill was ruined by a poor pass and Scourfield accepted the gift to score easily.
Trigg’s conversion had 40 points on the board minutes before the break.
Coney Hill began a rather flat second period strongly and camped on the Cinderford line.
However, they were unable to break through some solid defence.
Cinderford’s pace on the break-out posed problems and only some over-indulgent passing denied them further scores.
On the hour mark, a simple move saw Paul Knight scramble over to get the scoreboard moving again.
Ten minutes later, fast hands created an overlap for Toby Wilson to score.
Burns took over the kicking duties to convert.
Article courtesy of www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk
