RUGBY: Big clash for Chipping Sodbury after draw with Cheltenham Saracens

There are just five matches left for Sodbury, currently sixth in the table, but they are only three points behind third-placed Barts and secured a big point in their high-scoring draw last Saturday at Cheltenham Saracens, who are a place above them.

Sodbury’s game in hand on Saturday can take them above Barts Rugby if they win and, if they earn a bonus point as well, will leave them six points behind St Mary’s Old Boys in the final race for promotion out of the division.

On Saturday, Sodbury had an encouraging start at Cheltenham Saracens which saw them string together a couple of series of ten or more phases.

But things went wrong as Saracens were 8-0 and kept Sodbury in their own half for the first 20 minutes until conceding a penalty at a five metre scrum.

This allowed Sodbury to clear upfield, take a deep breath and have a word with themselves.

When the Saracens fly-half cleared the ball poorly, Joe Horton was ready.

He caught the ball on the halfway line, looked up and plotted his route.

Horton was up to full speed quickly and sliced through the hapless defenders, swerving and stepping out of tackles to touchdown wide on the left.

The exultant cries of the travelling support had just died away when the Sodbury bungled the restart, which led to Saracens scoring a try just two minutes after Sodbury’s opener.

Skipper for the day Dom Pullen rallied his men and, when Sodbury secured a turnover from the restart, he set off toward the try line.

Pullen is hard to pull down and he stayed on his feet long enough for Luke Balentine-Smith to receive a pass, which he swiftly and skilfully popped to Dave Guest.

Guest had thirty metres to go but a turn of pace was mesmerising as he rounded two tackles before bashing the final one away for a cracking try wide on the left.

Play became a little bogged down between the 22s until Niall Kincaid, who was catching the eye at number eight, burst forth from a central scrum.

He made 15m dragging Saracens’ defenders with him, quick ruck ball found Pullen on another devastating straight run.

It was evident that he has more in his locker than just a power game when he released Dan Bradley with the coolest pass out of the back door.

Bradley is another balanced runner who drifted through the defence unmolested to touch down wide on the left again.

For the first ten minutes of the second period, the two teams went hard at each other. Ryan Halford switched to number six where he made a defensive contribution to be proud of, but it was the elder statesmen of the second row who deserve special praise.

The ever-consistent Alan Keeping, along with Sean Palmer, who, on more than one occasion, bamboozled men half his age with his trademark dummy-into-pirouette move.

These two provided the raw power to hump a Saracens scrum backwards on 12 minutes. They cleared the ball but Pullen had a lock on a target.

He smashed his man to the floor and simply took the ball off him.

He was up in a flash and making a thunderous 30m in the process. Bradley was in support at the quickest of rucks to make a few more metres.

Horton got involved before handing the ball back to Bradley. As the cover poured across, Guest turned up to take the scoring pass after a lung-bursting 70m run from the initial scrum.

Bagging two tries in a game was just reward for a man who recently is hitting top form and making massive contributions in open play while performing his hooking duties with aplomb.

Some 10 minutes later, Sodbury conceded a try from a 20m lineout.

Being driven over from that distance really rankled as that is what the Sodbury eight usually do to their opponents.

With a bonus point now in the bag, the score was still tight.

Turning over a Saracens lineout gave Sodbury some possession and, after two quick rucks, Pullen fed James Bennett.

He found Jon Cook who scorched the turf on his way in to score from 40m.

But Sodbury were to rue that none of their five tries were converted when Saracens drew with a converted try.