Cinderford Playing for Points to Move Up
v Fylde KO 3.00pm (Saturday 22 March — National 1)
Following a heart wrenching one point defeat last weekend against Richmond, Cinderford travels to Fylde for yet another massive game to earn points and climb up. Back in November it was a hard fought battle when the two sides met with the Foresters claiming a 39-32 victory and looking to replicate that again.
With dogged determination, Andy Deacon, director or rugby, is confident that his side can pull out all the stops for their remaining seven games. “We learnt another hard lesson on Saturday after slipping to a one-point defeat to Richmond after giving away a silly penalty right at the end. We started brightly and kept the ball for long periods but instead of going ahead we found ourselves under our own sticks and 7-0 down. From there we were chasing the game but turned it around to get us in a position to win. Someone went off their feet at a ruck but the annoying thing is the breakdown had been a mess all day and in that instance we appeared in control. We were running down the clock with lots of pick and goes but it resulted in a game-changing penalty. Ultimately we have to look at what got us there and we should never have been in that position. If we didn’t let them in for those soft early tries it would never have happened.”
“As ever we have gone through a magnitude of emotions and ultimately the biggest one is frustration but I can’t fault the heart, desire and work rate of the boys. We are still fighting and just have to carry preparing well and doing our best. We face Fylde on Saturday who have set the target of scoring 100 tries this season and are on course with 97, so it’s pretty clear to see what brand of rugby they play. They either win by 50 odd points or lose. So our aim must be to counteract the way they play. We know exactly what to expect and if we stop them scoring tries we will have a really good chance. They will still be smarting from their loss to Hull Ionians, who have only won three times this season, and will be fired up.”
“We still have two games in hand but you have to win them otherwise they count for nothing. I have spent hours working out all the different permutations but it is clear that it all comes down to us and we have to win as many games as we can. We must focus on ourselves and I believe in what the players can produce, they just have to do it more often.”
Just a few changes in the team this week see Will Davis start at loose head for an injured Chris Bundy and Tom Heard come onto the bench. Lance Randall starts in the second row for an injured Tom Hicks and George Mills replaces Marcus Brown at 7.
Other Cinderford news sees Cinderford United playing Chinnor RFC KO at2.30pm and the Stags home to Dings 2 also at 2.30pm
Good luck to all teams
Cinderford RFC / @cinderfordrfc v Fylde/ @fylderugby
Backs:
15. Mike Wilcox
14. Sam Hanks
13. Jack Adams
12. Robbie Winchle
11. Sam Baker
10. Mark Davies
9. Clive Stuart-Smith
Forwards:
1. Will Davis
2. Koree Britton
3. Elliot Booley
4. Lance Randall
5. Ed King
6. Roger Birkin
7. George Mills
8. George Evans (capt)
Replacements:
16. Tom Heard
17. Tom Bozzard
18. Will Keenan
19. Danny Pointon
20. Stef Hawley
21. Roger Birkin