Dursley RFC 15 Minety 7

DURSLEY travelled to Wiltshire on Saturday to play in the semi-final of the Stroud & District Cup against opposition who play the equivalent of three leagues higher in the Southern Counties League.

In near perfect conditions for running rugby Dursley made a great start, choosing to use their superior fitness to run the bigger Minety pack around.

This game plan seemed to be working with holes appearing in the home side's defence. One such hole appeared when Matt Sprague found himself with the ball some 30 yards out. Using his young legs he galloped over the try line to open the scoring, though the conversion failed to give Dursley a 0-5 lead.

Good interplay with the forwards and backs and some slick handling saw Dursley attacking once again deep in the opposition's half. This time Luke Small claimed the try, also adding the conversion, to give Dursley a 0-12 lead, and a rout seemed on the cards.

With the home side struggling to contain the young Dursley side they chose to disrupt the Stinchcombe outfit by any way, shape or form. This tactic worked as Dursley soon lost their shape and became dragged down by their frustrated opposition.

A clash of heads led to a dazed Tony Niblett being carted off to hospital suffering from what turned out to be a fractured eye socket and cheekbone. A quick reshuffle in the pack saw Perry move up into the boiler house and Kev Davies join the back row.

Minety were soon reduced to 14 men when one of their players was sin-binned for illegal use of the boot. However, Dursley were still struggling to find their early form and failed to score from the numerical advantage.

In the second half more cards soon followed for misdemeanours - another one for Minety and two for Dursley and, at one stage, Dursley only had 13 men on the park.

Special mention must go to the six Dursley forwards who never conceded an inch in the scrums against the bigger opposition's eight.

Minety scored while Dursley were numerically challenged to bring the scores to 7-12. Even though the home side never looked like scoring again Dursley still had to perform well to maintain the lead, and a late penalty scored by Luke Small soon put them two scores in front and they managed to finish the game 7-15.

But for a few wayward passes and wrong decisions this could easily have been a 40-point game. It was in no way a dirty game but Dursley must maintain their discipline and composure if they are to compete against more challenging opposition, and this game showed the importance of keeping all 15 men on the park.

L This Saturday, Dursley travel to Old Elizabethans for the penultimate league game of the season.