Clifton v Broadplain

It seems strange to say after winning a Gloucester Cup quarter-final 30-3 that this was perhaps our most uneven performance of the season. We failed to find structure to our game, partly due to a series of mistakes, especially in the first half.

However, we did find a cutting edge and ended up scoring six tries against Broad Plain, who perhaps thankfully for us were not at full strength due to injuries. In fact we started with 14 men a side as one of their players was late arriving.

Broad Plain opened the scoring with a penalty before we notched up our first try, which came after we got the ball wide to Sam Read and created a ruck close to their line. Tom arrived and picked up and drove his way over.
Sennan was our next scorer after we moved the ball along the line again and he found a gap to go over, giving us a 10-3 half-time lead.

We looked a little bit more cohesive in the second-half, but it was mostly our pressure on their backs forcing them into mistakes that led to our tries.

Sam Read scored next after he pounced on a handling error - and then he bagged another from some good hands from us. 20-3.

Our next try was begun by Matt who fielded a kick in his own half and went on the counter-attack down the wing. He drew a defender and released second-row Tom – who was playing on the wing in an inspired move by coach Nick – and he showed just how quick he can be when he gets in his stride to cross the line and put us up 25-3.
Credit for our final try must go to flanker Shane, who broke off from a scrum won by Broad Plain and hounded their scrum-half, fly-half, centre and winger to force a handling error then capitalised on by Elliot.

On what was a windy day we missed all our conversions, yet the kicks were struck well and we were unlucky not to get several of them between the posts.

After our heroics of Friday night and perhaps not being as switched on as usual after losing an hour’s sleep because of the clocks change, we never quite hit our stride. But we won well in the end and we can enjoy our tour before getting back to work in readiness to face the challenge of Tetbury in the semi-final.

Hamish