Gloucester Premier League

Cirencester 50 Chipping Sodbury 0

CHIPPING Sodbury were handed a second successive Gloucester Premier League defeat on Saturday as they went down to Cirencester in a crucial clash which may be the one that says goodbye to their hopes of runners-up spot this season.

Sodbury had been on a three-match winning streak until they came up against second-placed Berry Hill last Saturday week and went down to defeat.

But this time, they had little chance of victory as Cirencester, now third in the table, roared to a half-century of points without reply.

Cirencester started fluently, stretching Sodbury’s defence until Adam Seager saw a gap and went through to score a well-constructed try.

This was quickly followed by a break from Kieran Kelly who fed powerful winger James Isaacs on the switch for another.

The large home crowd did not have to wait long before Kelly scored a trademark try.

Ciren continued to run riot and the game was over as a contest when the evergreen and popular tight head Neil Bunce scored after a short pick and drive.

Bunce’s first try in ten years was warmly saluted by the crowd and his fellow players.

Sodbury’s agony continued as the returning James Fisher then scored from a set scrum. Seager put his foot down to beat a defender but Fisher still had some work to do when he received the ball before going over.

And, if Sodbury thought their opponents would take their foot off the gas after the break, having gone well ahead, they were mistaken.

There was no respite for Chipping Sodbury as second rows James Renowden and Will McCarthy worked their socks off hitting rucks and defending aggressively, while they were well complemented by the back row of Matt Berry, Dave Evans and Alex Hammond.

Chipping Sodbury enjoyed a rare moment of possession until a big hit in midfield saw the ball spilled and collected by Kelly who cantered in to complete his brace of tries.

Soon after, in-form centre Joe Hammond latched on to an offload from the busy Seager. With a bit still to do Hammond eventually crashed over under the sticks, converting his own try to make it 45-0.

The scoring was completed by Dave Evans who finished off another flowing move to get a try out wide.

The defeat means that Sodbury have to pick themselves up before a third massive clash in recent weeks, this time with sixth-placed North Bristol away at Oaklands.

A win would give Sodbury the faintest of hopes of taking second place, with four games left after this, but defeat would certainly mean the end of those ambitions.