After back to back home wins Cinderford travelled to Blackheath with high hopes of a rare away victory, but a strong second-half performance by the Londoners saw them slip to another disappointing defeat.

The match began well for the visitors with Mike Wilcox creating the opportunity for Lloyd Stapleton to score an unconverted try. A lineout catch and drive then enabled hooker Tom Bozzard to touchdown with Mark Davies kicking the conversion. Cinderford continued to dominate but they failed to take advantage of a couple of good scoring chances before their former outside-half Rory Teague opened Blackheath’s account with a penalty. The home side soon scored again when centre Richard Windsor went over for a try which Teague converted. Right on the stroke of half-time Davies kicked a penalty to make it 15-10 to Cinderford at the interval.

The second-half was a different story though as Blackheath upped their game and began take control. Livewire scrum-half Jack Walsh darted over, with Teague’s conversion putting his team ahead. Two further penalties from Teague stretched the lead and he also converted Richard Lankshear’s try to put Blackheath out of sight at 30-15 late in match. Cinderford did manage to grab a third try when Jack Preece scored from another lineout drive with Davies adding the extras but they just missed out on a losing bonus point.

CINDERFORD: M Wilcox; N Codlin, J Adams, D Scourfield (Done, 77), L Stapleton; M Davies, D Pointon; J Smart (Bundy, 57), T Bozzard (Preece, 59), N Selway; B West, E King (Critchley, 70); L Allen, W Foden (Langley, 57), G Evans. Replacements: K Done, J Preece, R Langley, D Critchley, C Bundy.