Success for young sides (From Gazette Series)

Success for young sides

Cotham Park U17s 5 Dursley U17s 27

A CONTROLLED display of rugby saw Dursley take a comfortable victory at Cotham Park.

Jamie Muir's drop goal gave the visitors the lead early on and they soon registered the first try of the game.

Steven Kirk's kick and chase put the Cotham full-back under pressure and, when Tommy Gannon forced a fumble, Mike Robinson claimed the loose ball for a try.

The Dursley pack began to get on top of their strong opponents and they provided a good platform for Robinson and Andy Sprague to get the ball wide for Lawrence Dungworth to score in the corner.

At 15-0 up it looked easy for the visitors and they were sleepily caught for an unconverted try shortly before the interval.

Improved ruck ball in the second half allowed Dursley more possession and full-back Barney O'Dowd took advantage of good play by several teammates to score the first try of the second half.

Ben Morgan rounded things off at 27-5 when his sublime sidestep allowed him to score a converted try under the posts.

Captain Mike Tree had to go off injured late on but an X-ray revealed he has not fractured his arm.

Next up, the U17s commence their National Bowl competition with a trip to Oxford where they play Maidenhead.

Gloucestershire County Cup Drybrook U16s 0 Dursley U16s 53

DURSLEY produced their best performance of the season to date, travelling to Drybrook for a 53-0 win in their group game.

After a fairly even opening, Dursley took complete control, with the forwards totally dominant.

After a series of fine attacks and some gallant defence by Drybrook, a fine move resulted in Gareth Lewis scoring from close range.

Dursley now started to produce some fine flowing rugby and constantly exposed a very nervous Drybrook full-back with numerous high balls.

Four more first half tries followed - two from Ollie Halford and one each for James Butt and Robbie Winchle.

Dursley used their full range of line out ball and set plays with great effect.

With Dursley now in complete control of the match, numerous positional replacements were made but still they controlled the tempo of the game.

Further scores from Lee Powell, Nick Bamber, Jack Purchase and Winchle again ensured a comfortable win considering the difficult heavy conditions.