Clifton miss out to Shelford comeback

The first occasion Shelford featured was as recent as 2009 when they battled their way out of the London Division to join the National Leaguesand last year they finished in tenth place.

Darren had hoped the form showed the form his side side in the win at Redruth last week would be carried forward to this afternoon but it was not to be.

Six of the meetings between the clubs have been at Cribbs Causeway and you will be surprised to learn that we have only been successful on one occasion, In fact in April 2012 they inflicted one of our heaviest home defeats 14-65.

It looked at half time if the jinx would be broken but it was not to be as the visitors staged a tremendous second half display with those familiar names of back row men Aki Lea, Redmond Newbury and Rupert Ransom imposing them selves on the afternoon.

The visitors had the better of the early exchanges putting our defence under great pressure and as we struggled several tackles were missed.

Centre Grant Anderson created the first try when he corkscrewed his way passed several defenders after 9 minutes to give centre Gerhard Wessels a clear run to the line with full back Sam Smith converting.

We came back in the game with the pace of full back Ben Foley and out centre pairing of Dan Wells and Will Pomphrey creating pressure and we drew level when we forced a line out close to the line and an excellent catch and drive saw hooker Rupert Freestone go over for a try converted by fly half Charlie Foley.

Halfway through the half Ben Foley created line breaks which resulted in Wells and Pomphrey with Charlie converting..

On the stroke of half time Foley brothers stretched our lead with an converted try they both contributed to.

Sadly Ben was forced the field with an injury and along with the already departed reduced our attacking options for the second half which we went into with a twenty one point lead.

We looked very much a different after the break as we appeared to switch off as Shelford upped the pace and reduced the lead with a straight forward penalty from Smith 2 minutes into the half

From the restart replacement John Hale forced his way over wjde out which was swiftly followed by a a further try from replacement prop Ben Howar went over with Smith converting.

Shelford continued to dominate and Aki Lea went over the bonus point try with Smith adding the extras to take the lead.

We showed more spirit and we took the took regained the lead a Foley penalty but Smith kicked the crucial penalty to regain the lead and record a one point win

The Shelford scribe on the web described the seond half as some of the best rugby they have ever played away from home in the league,

The only consolation was the two bonus we gained.