Gloucester One division

Southmead 17 Dursley 32

IT was a sunny afternoon as Dursley travelled to Southmead in North Bristol for the first Gloucester One league game of the season. And they came away with a try bonus point victory to set themselves up nicely at the start of the new campaign.

Last season, the games against Southmead had been close with each side winning their home game so this was a good challenge for the Dursley side.

The game started well for the travelling side with sustained pressure early on.

But it was a break by the home side which resulted in an easy penalty opportunity to allow the Bristolians a three-point advantage after ten minutes. Dursley continued their early pressure and this paid off when Southmead infringed at the break off to allow Grant Boucher to slot the three points to level the game.

It was from the restart that the Dursley side really got into full flow. Simon Camm took the high ball from the restart and then a delightful high kick from scrum half Sam Pinker allowed full back Ollie Halford to pounce on the chance to stretch his legs, breaking through one tackle to score out wide. The conversion was missed but Dursley led for the first time at 8-3, a lead they never surrendered.

The Dursley pack then showed its true force, not only were they dominant in the set piece with the front row of Ed Scott-Bowden, Joe Cowley and Damien Crosswell securing one hundred per cent of their own ball at scrummage time.

They also took a large percentage of the home side’s ball as well. But it was in the loose that they showed their true strength and power and, on 25 minutes, Scott-Bowden made a lovely break and offloaded to captain Jack Robson who deftly offloaded in the tackle to Boucher. Jack Western and Silas Winterbottom were both on hand to assist and secured the ball to allow winger Liam Smith to penetrate deep into the Southmead half. The ball then went wide through the hands of the back line of Max Pullin and Duncan Goodison before Bradley Winchle was able to put Halford clear for his second of the game out side and take the lead to 13-3.

It was the pack that had the next say in matters on the half hour mark. The dominant set piece was starting to show as the home side tired. A scrummage on the five metre line allowed the pack to drive for the line. Tim Wilcox picked up just short of the line and drove for the whitewash, putting in a delightful offload to allow Robson to crash over under the posts. Boucher duly converted the try to make it a 20-3 advantage.

Southmead were not to be beaten easily though and just before the half time whistle they caught the visitors napping with a superb chip kick over the defensive line to allow their winger to pick up and score under the posts to take the half time score to 20-10.

The second half continued much like the first with some excellent penetrating runs by Wilcox, Camm and Western to tie up the defence and then allowing the backs to run into space. It was from one of these that Boucher found himself out wide offering a delightful switch pass to Winchle to gain more ground before Wilcox drove for the line. The space then allowed Pullin to dive over from close range to take the lead to 25-10.

The last try was probably the try of the game with the backs running some superb lines and the secure hands of Boucher and Goodison and a strong break by Halford putting Smith in the clear to score out wide. A late try by the home side was meaningless as the match finished in a Dursley bonus point victory by 32-17