Senior Vase semi-final

Chipping Sodbury 22 St. Mary’s Old Boys 7

THE OPENING exchanges of this game ebbed and flowed. Sodbury would work hard to get into St Mary’s half then give away penalties which were kicked back at them.

Fortunately the Sods had Captain Pete Butcher in the line out – in devastating form, he effortlessly won his own ball but was also able to pick off St Mary’s throw at will, effectively blunting their attack.

Any of this stolen ball was whipped out to Dan Bradley at fly half; he regularly cleared the ball 50 metres, giving Sodbury valuable breathing space.

A feature of Bradley’s game is punishing poor kicks from the opposition. He got a chance after 12 minutes, setting off from a central position 60 metres out from St Mary’s try line, swerving his way through 40 metres of traffic.

The ball eventually went into touch 10 metres short but the momentum was with the home side. Butcher once again rose highest and gathered the ball one-handed to set up a maul.

St Mary’s made Sodbury work very hard to get the ball over the line with some very committed work. At the back, with his big hands on the ball, steering the ship, was Luke Balentine-Smith; as the try line approached he surged over, using every one of his multiple kilos to score the try.

Bradley easily converted and the Sods were on their way.

Just 5 minutes later the visitors lost a man to a yellow card. Touch was found from the penalty and another driving maul set up, which was stopped illegally. From the melee, Butcher got to his feet with the ball, tapped the ball and went by himself.

His superior strength saw him crash through the scrambling defence, where he stretched out with his outsized gnarly clump of a hand for a try which owed everything to quick thinking and determination.

It was a tougher conversion but Bradley made it look simple as he knocked the ball between the uprights.

From the restart Sodbury surged back into St Mary’s half. Butcher caught the ball and passed to Alan Keeping, who made 20 metres before slipping a great pass to Duncan Bell. He also made rapid progress before passing to muscular wing Chris Hamilton, who was tackled just short of the line.

From this Sodbury stayed in St Mary’s half for 15 minutes but couldn’t score due to pushing a few passes which either fell short or went forward. After a long injury break, St Mary’s caught Sodbury cold.

They worked hard for field position and pulled Sodbury right then left until they found a gap to scoot in beneath the posts.

Only minutes into the second half, Matt Cook saw yellow. In open play St Mary’s were able to build phases and territory but their scrum was starting to creak. Big Al was replaced by Lee Ralph, whose recovery from a gym accident is well ahead of schedule.

Ralph has not long stopped using the pink weights but he and the Sodbury pack were becoming too much for the St Mary’s pack to handle.

Sodbury buckled a 5 metre St Mary’s scrum to force a put in of their own. The ball came sweetly back and was moved blind, just two passes and a dive from fleet-footed wing Ben Taylor saw a try scored that opened up an unassailable lead.

As Sodbury pressed hard, their mistakes mounted up and St Mary’s were always on hand to exploit them. Happily for the Sods, they had 3 men who each made a lung-bursting contribution in defence.

Coming through the centre was impossible due to Dom Pullen, whose appetite for destruction is unparalleled. Out wide was Hamilton, as fearsome as he was tireless.

Luke Carnaby, Man of the Match and architect of annihilation, patrolled the fringes of any breakdown with menace; when not scything down the opposition, he was pummelling them with the ball in hand.

The remainder of the game was played out between the 22’s as neither side was able to bother the tryline. The final points came from the educated boot of Bradley, with his 35m effort warmly applauded as Sodbury go forward to the Gloucester final against Berry Hill.