Gloucester Premier

Frampton Cotterell 27 Dursley 5

FRAMPTON Cotterell scored three unanswered second half tries to see off the challenge of Dursley on Saturday.

The game was switched to the Winterbourne International Academy as the Frampton Cotterell main pitch was considered unplayable due to the recent downpour.

Even though Dursley are still struggling to turn out their strongest team due to injury and unavailability, hopes were high for an improvement in fortunes.

In the strong wind, Frampton Cotterell took just five minutes to put the first score on the board with a Thomas Broaden try that went unconverted.

A shoulder injury to Dursley winger Brad Winchle added to the pressure and saw Josh Case, who turned in a commendable performance, coming in as replacement.

The Frampton Cotterell forwards continued to punish some early handling errors from Dursley but good defence stopped a driving maul after ten minutes. Midway through the first half Matt Lawrence added Frampton's second unconverted try from a driving scrum on the five metre line.

Dursley, never a team to let their heads drop, narrowed the gap minutes later with a try by hooker Simon Camm from a quick tap penalty ten metres out.

Full back Tom Broomfield stepped up to take the conversion but the ball twice blew off the tee in the strong wind, leaving him little time to attempt the kick which fell short of its target.

The score seemed to lift the spirits of Dursley and from a scrum on their own five metre line, the pack of Adam Dungworth, Simon Camm, Paul Winterbottom, Scott Udal, Simon Thomas, Sam Porter, Harry Lea and Jake Martin won a penalty against the previously dominant Frampton to clear their lines.

Despite good breaks by scrum half Aaron Lennard, centres Jack Rowe and A J Caddick and winger Darren Sampson, Dursley failed to add a further score.

The second half began with some strong tackling from Porter and Caddick and fly half Dan Brooks being able to take a small advantage from the across-pitch wind.

With just 50 minutes gone Lea was shown the yellow card and Frampton Cotterell made good use of the reduced numbers minutes later by spinning the ball wide and adding a try through Sam Barnes, converted by Lawrence.

Dursley veteran Rich Brooks came on as a replacement for Thomas and allowed his experience to shine with some excellent work in the driving maul.

With the second half drawing to a close Frampton added two further unconverted tries from Michele Canulli and Ben Carter.

Dursley upped the tempo to turn in some strong defence to avert another home score.