Cinderford welcomed Cwmbran to the Forest on a wet and cold October morning.
Played at Heywood, this was the first match between these sides and was eagerly awaited!
The game got off to a fast start with much of the first 10 minutes spent in Cwmbran’s half of the pitch. Some excellent work from the pack secured good possession and only some strong defence from Cwmbran kept the scores level.
Following some superb handling and many phases of play, Cinderford’s Matty Cooke picked the ball up from the back of a ruck and dived over the line to score the opening try of the game. Jack Guy secured the extra 2 points from the conversion to give Cinderford a 7-0 lead.
Cwmbran started to get into the game and some fine defence from Cinderford maintained the early advantage.
Cinderford continued with some fine play from both forwards and backs and at half time, the lead was maintained at 7-0.
Cwmbran started the 2nd half strongly and despite some valiant tackling from Cinderford, Cwmbran scored an early try to reduce the lead to 7-5. The conversion was missed.
Cwmbran then scored another try and made the conversion to take the lead 12-7 with only 5 minutes remaining.
Cinderford were camped in the Cwmbran half for the remaning minutes and from a line-out won by Jacob Smith a fine handling move saw the ball in Will Baldwin’s hands to power over the line aided by the forwards, to tie the scores at 12-12.
Captain Jack had the chance to make the conversion to take the lead in the dying seconds and duly slotted home to give Cinderford a well deserved 14-12 victory.
Men of the match for Cinderford were the front row of Josh, Matty and Jacob, but this was an outstanding team effort and Cinderford will take a lot from this game going into next weeks fixture away to Cheltenham Tigers.
Josh Haddock, Matt Cooke, Jacob Smith, Ethan Brooks, Arron Barnett, Connor Gresty, Morgan Peates, Louis Brennan, Niall Rosser, Jack Guy (Cap’t), Joe Smith, Toby Powell, Will Baldwin, Jack Robbins, Ryan Kibble, Finlay Poultney.