Played at The Bridge 16/12/2012.

Cinderford Squad: Josh Haddock, Niall Rosser, Matt Cooke, Jack Guy, Toby Powell, Ollie Moore, Will Taylor, Connor Gresty, Ben James, Joe Smith, Ethan Brooks, Jack Robbins, Will Baldwin, Cam Davis, Finlay Poultney, Luke Marrot, Aaron Thomas, Louis Brennan, Morgan Peates, Ryan Owen.

Cinderford welcomed Cheltenham Tigers to the Bridge in the last game before Xmas. Conditions were testing but the pitch held up well. In an exiting first half, Cinderford played “downhill” and soon scored an early try through Will Baldwin. A fine solo effort saw Will take a high ball on the half way line and a superb run saw him break a few tackles and a flying “Chris Ashton” swallow dive under the post saw Cinderford take an early lead. A fine conversion by Ollie Moore followed to give the home side a 7-0 lead.

Some fine play all round followed and a second Cinderford try was scored by Connor Gresty. Ollie Moore missed the conversion but Cinderford took a deserved 12-0 lead. A strong Cheltenham side then scored a try which was converted to reduce the lead to 12-7.  Luke Marrot then scored a fine try for Cinderford to extend the half time lead to 17-7. Jack Guy was unlucky with conversion attempt when hitting the upright.

After the half time break, Cheltenham started the stronger and with the benefit of the “downhill” scored an early try with only 2 minutes of the half gone. The conversion was missed but the score was now 17-12.  Cheltenham were very strong and following some changes by Cinderford, 3 further unanswered tries followed from Cheltenham and the final score was 31-17 to the visitors.

Cinderfords player of the match was Joe Smith and Jack Guy was chosen by Cheltenham as their Cinderford player of the match.  Although a disappointing final score, Cinderford can take a great deal of encouragement from this performance and now look forward to a tough County Cup campaign starting in January 2013