Cinderford gained their first away win of the season at basement boys Hull Ionians but had to work extremely hard against a side who were clearly pumped-up for the challenge.
Cinderford kicked off and when Ionians returned the ball The Foresters launched a series of drives that resulted in a penalty kicked by Mark Davies. Cinderford were offside from the restart but Ionian’s full-back Simon Hammersley’s attempt slid just wide. However when Mark Davies’s drop-out was charged down Ionians launched a series of attacks that pinned the visitors in their own half until 18 minutes when Hammersley was once again off target.
Cinderford impinged from the restart and the game degenerated into a series of errors from both sides. Nevertheless Cinderford continued to give away a host of penalties and Hammersley made no mistake with an equaliser from in front of the posts on the half-hour. It was more of the same with Ionians attacks thwarted by a resolute Cinderford defence until outside-half Chris Reakes gave the home side a six points to three advantage with a drop-goal on the stroke of half time.
H-T Hull Ionians 6 Cinderford 3
Things almost went from bad to worse when the Foresters were penalised for obstruction at the restart but they weathered the storm and after Ionians blind-side Mark Wigham was yellow carded for pulling down Cinderford were awarded a penalty try from the ensuing scrum, Davies converted.
The foresters went further in front almost straight from the restart when good handling saw full back Mike Wilcox put away Ed King For a try under the posts with Davies adding the extras. Cinderford then lost Elliot Booley to the bin for a dangerous tackle but they defended resolutely until the sixty-fifth minute when Ionians wing Will Heylings crossed in the corner after good work down the left flank. 11-17.
Cinderford responded immediately with a Davies penalty when Ionians pulled down at a line out and the outside-half added another on 78 before weathering yet another Hull storm with the Yorkshire men spilling the ball just short of the line at the whistle.
Cinderford
15 Michael Wilcox. 14 Nevaro Codlin. 13 Jack Adams. 12 Robert Winchle. 11 Alex Pickersgill. 10 Mark Davies. 9 Clive Stuart-Smith.
1 William Davis. 2 Thomas Bozzard. 3 Elliot Booley. 4 Thomas Hicks. 5 Edward King. 6 Adam Balding. 7 William Keenan. 8 George Evans
16 Thomas Heard. 17 Finlay Sinclair. 18 Roger Birkin. 19 Stefan Hawley. 20 Reece Boughton.
Hull Ionians:
15 Simon Hammersley. 14 Stephen Slingsby. 13 Sam Forbes. 12 Joe Martin. 11William Heylings. 10 Chris Reakes. 9 Adam Thomas
1 David Laverick. 2 Alistair Thomson. 3 Stephen Johnson. 4 Joe Makin. 5 Alex Campbell. 6 Mark Wigham. 7 James Tyson. 8 Dan Hague
16 Adrian Longbone. 17 Tom Rice. 18 Alex Forth. 19 Robert Kench. 9 Isaac Green. 20 Keane Naylor