Gloucester Premier League

North Bristol 22 Cheltenham Saracens 50

CHELTENHAM Saracens revealed immediately their most potent weapon was to be a powerful scrum, which drove to North’s line in the second minute, where their number eight picked up and drove over to score an excellent try, which was also converted.

Sadly, North Bristol soon lost young centre, Billy Cantin, to a leg injury and before they had readjusted fully to that, some weak tackling let Saracens in for a second try and a 0-12 lead.

Almost at once, the visitors went down to fourteen men, when they were yellow carded for some spiteful behaviour, though this seemed not to affect them at all.

Again, North Bristol’s scrum was driven back, before Sarries picked up to earn a converted try at 0-19.

However, the relief was palpable on the home touch line, when North showed good handling skills which enabled Alfie Ford to score his first senior try for the club at 5-19.

Cheltenham, however, demonstrated good creative running too, in reply to go 5-24 ahead.

Undeterred, the home side gathered and drove from a lineout to score another first time try by Jay Woodleigh, which Josh Lobley coolly converted at 12-24 on the stroke of half-time.

North were caught on the hop at the restart and Saracens drove a maul to the line for a touchdown. The conversion took them 12-31 ahead. It was exciting open running which also saw the visitors sprint over in the corner for a try at 12-36.

Soon after, some loose handling by North Bristol was intercepted by the Cheltenham backs, whose touchdown and conversion put them a daunting 12-43 ahead. North’s back row toiled relentlessly throughout however, and their tackle-count was high. Veteran number eight, Alex Featherstone was never far from the score-zone either and it was his craftsmanship at the driven maul that resulted in a try for North Bristol at 17-43.

Inspired by this success, North’s smart handling and pacey running resulted in Lance Cassemis, fizzing over in the corner to score North’s last points at 22-43.

Cheltenham Saracens, however, still had more juice in the tank, though they were lucky not to be stopped for a glaring forward pass, before scoring a final converted try beneath the posts to deservedly take the honours at 22-50.