Gloucester Premier

Hucclecote 10

Frampton Cotterell 13

FRAMPTON Cotterell are on the verge of a remarkable revival after another Gloucester Premier win put them within touch of relegation survival.

With tough games for Frampton's relegation opponents on Saturday, they knew a win away against Hucclecote could go a long way to securing their status with one game to go.

And, with Hucclecote having nothing to play for, Frampton tore in to them from the kick off and, eighty minutes later, took the victory that puts them four points clear of bottom-but-one Tewkesbury, who have a game in hand on Frampton.

The visitors pinned Hucclecote in their own half with strong running from Josh Creed and Joe Ferris. The pressure resulted in a penalty to Frampton, which Matt Lawrence duly converted to give them the lead.

This woke the hosts up, who started to move into Frampton's half, getting to their 22 with some hard running from their flanker and number eight.

However, from a scrum ten yards from Frampton's line, their Hucclecote's scrum-half threw a pass meant for their outside centre only to watch as it was intercepted by Frampton full-back Simon Belsten. He ran eighty metres to touch down under the posts and extend the lead to 10-0.

This clearly affected the home team and they never made it out of their half for the rest of the first period. However, Frampton could not take advantage of the situation either and score more points.

Hucclecote's coach could be heard miles off during the break as he read the riot act to his players, and this sparked them in to life once more. They reduced the arrears to seven points with a quick penalty but Frampton were not about to let this game slip, building the phases and moving within firing range against the strong wind.

More strong running from Tom Johnson and Tom Adams resulted in a penalty to Frampton when the hosts strayed offside, giving Lawrence a shot at goal that he took with relish.

Frampton kept Hucclecote pinned in their own half with some sensible kicking and chasing to the corners. But a breakaway from a quick tapped penalty saw Frampton stretched down their right wing and Hucclecote's scrum half crawled over the line. They added the conversion and were within one kick of levelling matters.

It was a tense final 15 minutes, with every Frampton player playing their part in defence and making the correct decisions at the right time to keep the home team away from any scoring opportunity. Eventually, captain Paul Whitehead took possession in the final act of a thrilling match and kicked the ball out to signal full time.

Frampton's next game is against bottom side Painswick at home on April 18.

And, if they win against a team which is already relegated and have just two victories out of 21 league matches to their name this season, it would finish the greatest escape of Frampton's history after a 11-match string of defeats during the middle of the season that took them into the relegation zone.