Gordon League 21

Chipping Sodbury 19

THIS WEEK, Sodbury rounded up all their props and selected them in the front five.

Lee Ralph and Luke Balentine-Smith were in their usual berths, backed up by Big Alan Keeping and Ben Sharp in the engine room.

Though short of top-end speed, all four bring large amounts of torque to proceedings. Each time they had the ball in their hands, they barrelled through the home defence, making valuable metres.

Sodbury gave away their head start when, after just 3 minutes, they failed to deal with a grubber kick on the edge of their 22.

The home side exploited the unpredictable bouncing nature of the rugby ball to go ahead.

The Sods managed to put extreme pressure on a League scrum 5m from the Sodbury try line.

Despite a rare shifting backwards, the hosts managed another try.

Heavily-bearded Dave Mouatt was introduced early for Noah Ferris, who injured himself following some bravery in the air.

Gordon League seemed to be defending in a rather narrow formation but a feature of the Sodbury attack saw them look for contact as their strike runners opted for the clogged middle channels.

After the break, Sodbury enjoyed the advantage of the slope.

A decent kick and chase led to a 10m lineout.

Sodbury sent up the beautifully chiselled physique of Matt Cook, who caught the ball to set up a drive.

Balentine-Smith had other ideas when he broke off on a rumbustious solo run; brought down short, the ball was recycled and given to Jon Cook.

It wasn’t far to the try line but the short side was packed with defenders. Cook’s feet flashed like a rapier in the sunlight, he attracted the defence but managed to keep his hands free to provide the scoring pass to Dan Bradley.

The introduction of the slope seemed to help Sodbury’s momentum. On 10 minutes, they were awarded a scrum 35m out from League’s try line; sterling work from the front five gave the platform for Matt Cook to launch himself.

His one-man surge took him 20 metres before he was pulled down, the ball was presented sweetly which allowed the quickest of rucks.

The ball then found Sodbury’s ultimate warrior, Bradley, whose solo mazy run saw him unpick the defence for his second try of the game, which he converted.

Just five minutes later it looked like Sodbury had done enough to disrupt a League lineout.

However, the bouncing ball was collected by the home side, this time it was a solo try which embarrassed Sodbury as it was run in from 30m through four tackles.

Soon after, the Sods were awarded a penalty for a high tackle. The ball was booted deep into the 22 for a 5m lineout: again, the drive was set up and Dave Guest broke free but was stopped agonisingly close.

The pack piled in to recycle the ball in time for close-range specialist Matt Cook to power over for the five-pointer. Bradley converted.

The game was teetering at 21-19 for the remaining 20 minutes but the skilled observer would have seen that men like Ollie Laidler, Tom Farthing and Man of the Match Matt Cook were doing their best to tip the balance in Sodbury’s favour.

There was an opportunity to steal the game when Sodbury were awarded a penalty after they built some 10 phases in the oppressive heat.

The ball drifted agonisingly wide and the Sods were left with only a losing bonus point to take back down the M5.