Dursley 26 Stroud 15

DURSLEY held aloft the Senior Combination Cup at Cirencester RFC on Saturday after an outstanding victory in beating Stroud against the odds.

It was a staggering performance from the side as Stroud were favourites to come away with the trophy as they play in a league above Dursley and have won the Gloucester Premier title to boot!

And Dursley also had to play without skipper Scott Udal for most of the match as the powerful forward broke his arm and dislocated his wrist minutes into the final.

This loss could have gone one of two ways but only seemed to spur the Dursley players on. Fly half Grant Boucher put the first points on the board with a simple penalty after four minutes.

Dursley won a penalty that Boucher kicked to touch and, from the attacking line-out flanker Harry Lea secured possession and the forwards drove number eight Tom Stevens over for an unconverted try.

Stroud narrowed the deficit from a Sykes penalty but, from the restart, Dursley drove a maul thirty metre, won a penalty and, after an attacking line-out, scrum half Tom Broomfield made a break to win a further penalty in front of the post that Boucher booted.

Great tackling by centre A J Caddick, James Watkins and props Ash Young and Ty Chappell put an abrupt end to Stroud attacks. And Dursley’s chances continued to flow thick and fast.

Dursley took the game to the opposition and continued to pound the Stroud line. They were rewarded on the half-hour when wing Damien Cummings struck a line and crossed for an unconverted try.

With confidence high, Dursley dominated the scrum winning an important one against the head on their own five metre line.

But Stroud showed they were not going to give up easily as they scored in the corner just before the break.

Stroud came into the second half more determined, and, with 48 minutes played, a missed tackle on the Dursley 22 put the Stroud centre into space to score. Sykes kicked the conversion and Dursley’s lead was down to one slender point at 16-15.

It looked like the tide had turned but hard work by the Dursley forwards and a great carry by second row Jake Martin to drive deep into Stroud territory gave released flanker Simon Camm to score, with Boucher adding the extras.

And a flurry of yellow cards in the last quarter saw Dursley reduced to 13 men at one stage but they held out and with 15 minutes left, Ollie Halford added an important three points from a forty metre penalty and put Stroud two scores down that they never recovered from due to outstanding Dursley defence from hooker Alex Budd, winger Darren Sampson, Boucher and Young.