Cinderford’s journey to the Richmond Athletic Ground proved to be a successful one as they emerged with a thoroughly deserved victory.
The early stages of the match were evenly contested until a penalty advantage saw the visitors kick ahead and re-gather possession before a quick exchange of passes down the blindside realised winger Matthew Jones to score an unconverted try. More pressure near the home team’s try line then resulted in another penalty award which was landed by outside-half Joe Winfield. Richmond hit back soon after the re-start when scrum-half Luc Jones spotted a gap and darted over for a try, which Alex Burrage converted to make it 8-7 to the visitors and the score remained unchanged at the interval.
The second half saw the Foresters pack increasing the pressure on their opponents and following a collapsed scrum Winfield was on target with his second penalty after 51 minutes. A high-tackle in mid-field then allowed him to stretch his team’s lead to 14-7 in the 63rd minute. As the match entered the final ten minutes Cinderford continued to dominate their opponents and a series of drives towards the try-line saw them awarded several penalties which eventually led to a yellow card for home replacement James Litchfield. The resultant penalty was kicked into touch to set up another lineout catch and drive and hooker Nathan Taylor was on hand claim the try, which was converted by Winfield.
There was still time for one final kick at goal from Cinderford’s man-of-the-match Winfield, who landed a 45m penalty, his fourth, to complete the scoring and top-off on an outstanding victory for his team.
Cinderford; Mike Wilcox, Matthew Jones, Will Hendy, Jamie Forrester, Mason Tonks, Joe Winfield, Jimmy Williams, Harry Edwards, Nathan Taylor, Shaun Knight, Tyler Jerrum (C), Callum Thompson, Paddy Pearce, Joe Mullis, George Evans.
Repls; George Porter, James Elliot, Dan Hodge, Tom Anderson, Tom Knight.
** Photo courtesy of Richmond RFC