Clifton v Tetbury

We carried on where we left off on tour at Paignton with a running rugby display to win our Gloucester Cup semi-final against Tetbury 56-5.

A slightly anxious start with some poor handling was overcome with a try by Dom from a 5m scrum, converted by Elliot.

On a sunny morning on a rock-hard pitch we then cut loose with backs and forwards in concert.

Tries followed from Sam R, George, Matt, George, Sennen, George, Sam R, Matt and Matt again.

There was some entertaining rugby, with George’s try straight from a kick-off a real crowd-pleaser. He caught the ball on our 10m line and then set off down the wing, showing great pace to score after outrunning their cover defence.

Having asked the opinion of one of the parents as to who should be man of the match, he replied the whole team. And it would be hard to disagree.

There were great efforts across all 18 players involved: Ollie made some superb hooks against the head; the tireless Louis was constantly at the heart of our rucks and mauls, wrecking their ball and giving us forward momentum; Ryley left bodies strewn around the pitch with his rampaging runs.

But one player stood out, and that was George. He stopped their dangerous fly-half in his tracks on a number of occasions in the first half, and in the meantime scored a hat-trick of tries.

Ryley’s 100 per cent conversion record (his kick against Totnes on tour) was slashed to 33 per cent after he only hit the post with an effort late on in the game and narrowly missed another.

This was an impressive win against last year’s Gloucester Cup winners. We stopped them from getting into the game with some excellent defence.

We’ll need another performance of at least the same level and probably more next Sunday against Old Patesians in the final.

Well done, boys. We’re in another final!

Hamish