Gloucestershire Junior Vase Quarter-Final

Dursley 31 Gloucester Old Boys 12

DURSLEY started their season with a fine win at home to Gloucester Old Boys in the Junior Vase.

It was a beautiful afternoon for running rugby with a good crowd to watch the first competitive match of the season at the club.

The competition will eventually see two successful sides play the national final at Twickenham so the rewards were big.

Dursley started much the stronger of the two sides and, after sustained pressure by a dominant pack in the opening exchanges, fly half Grant Boucher kicked a penalty for offside.

From the restart Dursley kept up the pressure, with Jake Martin prominent in carrying the ball.

One of these surges left several defenders in his wake as he crashed over under the posts with Boucher converting to make it 10-0 to Dursley.

The game continued in the same vein – pressure from Dursley and penalties given away by Old Boys – one of which was kicked by Boucher.

Old Boys then found some sustained possession and converted that into territory and pressure, resulting in a lineout five metres out.

The referee judged the sacking of the catch-and-drive to be illegal and sent Jack Weston to the sin bin.

From the resulting lineout, despite being down to seven forwards, Dursley defended excellently and turned the ball over and cleared their lines.

Dursley kept up the pressure in defence and, after a turnover in midfield, smart inter-passing saw Ollie Steel break free and sprint over from 20 metres under the posts. Again Boucher converted to make it 20-0 to Dursley.

Old Boys had come to make a game of it and put further pressure on; this time Dursley infringed close to their line and Ashley Young was sent to the sin bin for offside.

The second half saw a revitalised old Boys side put lots of pressure on the Dursley pack, earning territory and position.

A brief relief of the pressure saw Boucher kick another penalty for Dursley to make it 23-0, but after one too many penalties given away, the referee showed a second yellow card to Young, meaning that he was sent off for the remainder of the game.

Soon after Old Boys were awarded a penalty try after persistent infringing by Dursley in defence.

Dursley played the rest of the game with 14 men but defended well and had more chances to score.

Twice they crossed the line only to be held up, until Josh Bailey eventually got over wide out to make it 28-7, soon followed by a penalty from man of the match Boucher to make it 31-7.

Late on Old Boys scored a drive over try, but the game ended with Dursley back on the attack.