Clifton gain bonus point win on the road

A bleak Saturday morning with a 9.00pm departure from the club was followed by journey through rain and snow before arriving at Shelford in bright sunshine.

The pitch conditions at Shelford on our visits are usually very wet but on this occasion the playing conditions were merely tacky. In the first half we played directly into the bright sun which made the handling of high kicks difficult.

Our starting line up showed only change from the previous week with Jake Henry appearing on the wing in place of the injured Pete Homan.

We started brightly putting the home side under pressure with a couple penetrative breaks from full back Will Pomphrey. Our reward eventually came when fly half Charlie Foley landed an early penalty.

The home side then came alive with their forwards punching holes in our defence and with fly half Ben Penfold excellent kicking well out of hand we were under great pressure.

Gaps were exposed as our tackling fell away and in the space of seven minutes flanker Richie McIver, full back Ed Gough and winger Andy Scott crossed the line with centre Steve Smith landed 2 conversions. Gough was playing his first senior game for four years following a severe broken leg and serious illness. We wish him well on his return to the game.

The home side conceded a scrum from the restart and centre Sam Harrison broke through the home sides mid field defence to give Pomphrey a run in for a try Foley converted. Clifton began to raise their game and on the stroke of half time Foley kicked a penalty to narrow the gap to six points at the break.

The pattern of the second half was totally different as we produced in the words Darren Lloyd a near immaculate display. Our forwards had total dominance up front with No 8 Ali Bone producing a Man of the Match performance. Our driving play along with our almost perfect display at the set pieces deprived the home side of any worthwhile ball. Foley had an excellent game using his backs at every opportunity as well as some outstanding tactical kicking.

Clifton set up siege on the home line launching a succession of forward drives along with the variation of moving the ball wide. Eventually Foley stepped inside his man to cross under the posts after fifty minutes and his conversion gave the lead. Five minutes later he landed a penalty and followed this up with his second converted try on the hour. We were now firmly in control and it was no surprise when Pomphrey split the home defence to score the bonus point try. Foley landed the conversion to take his points tally for the afternoon to twenty seven surpassing his previous weeks total by seven.

Shelford came back into the game in the final minutes and grabbed a bonus point try in the sixth minute of injury scored by the impressive McIver which was due reward for their contribution to the afternoon.

The win was ample reward avenging our one point defeat earlier in the season . We remain in eleventh place after this win which pulls us further away from the bottom three clubs who all lost