Gloucester Premier League
Cirencester 16
Chipping Sodbury 26

CHIPPING Sodbury made it 14 wins from 16 Gloucester Premier League matches as they overhauled basement side Cirencester.

Sodbury are top of the table and their position was strengthened further as Gloucester Old Boys, down in ninth place, beat Sodbury’s rivals, second-placed Barton Hill by 19-12.

Although Barton Hill have a game in hand on Sodbury, the leaders have a six-point gap on their rivals with just six games of the season to go and the title closing in.

Traditionally, Sodbury’s trip to Cirencester has been a fruitless one.

They have had a string of losses previously but got the monkey off their backs on Saturday.

It looked ominous during the opening exchanges, as Sodbury conceded three early penalties, one of which Cirencester’s fly-half converted.

On the plus side, Sodbury’s defensive effort was as robust as ever, with the heavy hitters like Luke Balentine-Smith, Tom Farthing, and Matt Cook standing strong as guardians of the gainline.

Sodbury’s only try of the first half saw them go through six phases and cover 60 metres down the pitch, sweeping play from the left to the right then back left again.

Cirencester were stretched in defence and they infringed five metres out so Sodbury elected to scrummage.

They dipped as one to shift the hosts’ eight men which kept the back row down, and scrum-half Tom Head pounced.

He whipped the ball out to Dan Bradley, who thrust himself into the defensive line and was at full stretch to claim a super try, which was converted by Jon Cook.

For all their good work, Sodbury then let themselves down from the restart.

A missed tackle in the centre saw Cirencester enter Sodbury’s 22. Sodbury then repelled six furious drives until the ball was spun wide.

The sunlight made the pass look forward, but Cirencester took the lead nonetheless.

Farthing’s defensive effort continued, while wing Ben Pullen started to get a taste for the action with a few of his barn-storming runs.

At half time, a sombre Sodbury took on board their instructions and re-entered the fray.

Just two minutes in, Cook rose above the melee to steal a Cirencester line-out.

Niall Kincaid set off at a canter to be joined by Balentine-Smith, who broke tackles at will.

Bradley made the decisive break on halfway to race from the defence before passing to Dom Pullen, who scored a try which re-instated belief amongst the visitors’ ranks.

Cirencester then booted a three-pointer and Sodbury introduced Luke Carnaby and Gavin Edgar, each of whom would go on to make a significant contribution.

Veteran prop Alan Keeping, who was having a super game, secured a turnover on his own 10-metre line.

Bradley received the ball and distributed it to Pullen.

He, in turn, found Cook cruising into view.

Cook still managed to glide over the heavy spots on the pitch and displayed a burst of speed as he easily ran around the defence.

With the ball in two hands, and oozing calm, he tormented the cover as it rushed towards him.

On hand was full-back Jake Lewis. He took a perfect pass to dive in for the try, which was improved by Cook.

Sodbury now seemed to ease off a little and were forced into a period of defensive duties.

A series of five-metre line-outs for Cirencester were snuffed out by frenzied work from the front row en masse.

The bonus point try started with a Cirencester over-throw at a line-out on halfway.

Edgar pounced and made a 30-metre run diagonally from right to left, bouncing and dragging men as he went.

With an eye for broken-field play, Bradley once more set about the hosts.

He found Pullen steaming up his wing and with the soft pass safely in his hands, he dragged his counterpart with him to score in the corner. Cook converted from long distance.

Sodbury now took the opportunity to bring on prop Joe Sanders. He got through a mountain of work around the field, launching himself at the hosts’ runners, chopping them down or just stopping them dead.

He also gained valuable experience as he propped against former Gloucester stalwart John Day, and, after the game, his team-mates were eager to hear all about his up-and-over garage-door method of trying to subdue the more experienced man.

The final flurry of activity by Sodbury was a glorious 60-metre sweep up-field. The passing, along with the support play, was wondrous but the move broke down.