A much-changed Cinderford team showed terrific spirit and resolve to gain a victory over Birmingham Moseley at Billesley Common.
The visitors handed a National One debut to home-grown youngster Zac Littlefair at full-back and were once again forced to re-organise their backline after just seven minutes of play when an injury to Ed Sheldon saw him replaced by Clive Stuart-Smith. The defensive qualities of both teams were to the fore as the first half progressed with scoring opportunities very limited and even when the home team did get over the try line a terrific covering tackle by Cinderford flanker Matt Lane saw him hold the ball up, something that epitomised his team’s performance on the day. After an earlier miss home fly-half Dan Lewis landed a penalty just before the half-time whistle to make it 3-0 at the interval.
The early stages of the second half saw the Foresters building up the pressure on their opponents and a quick exchange of passes put second-row Joe Dancer through to score a try which Liam Hemming converted. Moseley responded with a long period of territorial dominance, but their opponents defence once again rose to the challenge until ten minutes from time when an intercepted pass saw the ball moved out wide to Sam Pointon who went over for a try which was well converted from the touchline by Lewis. Time looked to be running out on the visitor’s challenge, but they created one last chance by kicking a penalty into the corner and from the ensuing line-out a surge to the line was illegally impeded and the referee awarded them a penalty try.
Cinderford gathered possession from the re-start and cleared to touch allowing them to celebrate a tremendous victory, somewhat against the odds.
Cinderford; Zac Littlefair, Will Hendy, Will Baldwin, Ed Sheldon, Mike Austin, Liam Hemming, Jimmy Williams, George Porter, Nathan Taylor, Tim Brockett, Tyler Jerrum, Joe Dancer, Matt Lane, Aaron Ryan, George Angell.
Repls; Alex Chalkin, Will Haly, George Evans, Jack Shields, Clive Stuart-Smith.