Wadworth 6X Gloucester One

Dursley 26 Old Colstonians 27

DURSLEY snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in their first Gloucester One league outing of the season when they went down to Old Colstonians by a point.

Bradley Wichle scored both Dursley tries and, despite a bright start from the visitors during which they had a number of opportunities, the score after 10 minutes was only 0-3, with Old Colstonians kicking a penalty.

Dursley then started to dominate proceedings, and several threatening forays into the Old Colstonians half resulted in a series of penalties being awarded to the home side.

Fly-half Ryan Malpass duly converted three of them to give Dursley a 9-3 lead after half an hour.

The last of these followed a flowing move which should have resulted in a try only for the referee to call play back to issue a penalty and yellow card to an Old Colstonians player for a dangerous tackle during the build-up.

This was one of several frustrations for the Stinchcombe-based team where the infringements of the visitors prevented them scoring tries, and although this did result in them being issued with a total of three yellow cards during the first half, it was scant reward for the efforts of the Dursley team.

Eventually they were able to make the extra players count and scored their well-deserved first try to make the score 16-3 following a successful conversion from Malpass only for this to be partly cancelled out by a try close to half-time by the visitors to bring it back to 16-10.

Sadly for the home side, flanker Josh Bailey was also yellow carded just before the break for offside which took the shine off what had otherwise been a promising period of play.

The second half continued with Dursley pressure which brought their second converted try as well as another penalty to take the score to 26-13.

Old Colstonians had added another penalty by the time Dursley went 13 points in front, and with ten minutes remaining, it looked like a well-deserved outcome for the home team in their first league outing of the season.

However, the visitors found renewed vigour and helped by several penalties being given away by the home side, plus a second yellow for Bailey for not rolling away, they scored two further tries both of which were converted.

The last conversion was an excellent kick from the touchline to give the visitors a narrow one point lead with two minutes remaining.

Despite their efforts, Dursley could not get the field position they needed to try to get the winning score resulting in a disappointing loss from a promising position.

Dursley next play away at Old Elizabethans on Saturday, while Dursley United, the second team, entertain Spartans at home kick-off 3pm, and Dursley Ladies start their new league campaign on Sunday against Banbury ko: 3pm.