Chipping Sodbury Rugby were able to rely on an 'older head' to get them through their match against Cheltenham Tigers 18-28.

Alan Keeping, 45, threw down a destructive masterclass for an hour. Tackling hard while his single-handed counter-rucking slowed down the Tigers and forced penalties, although it was the much younger Jon Cook who had the Sods six points ahead within 5 minutes.

After 10 minutes, the Tigers started to fire up and it was Sodbury’s turn to concede penalties.

During a torrid spell for Sodbury, the Tigers slotted two kicks at goal, but the real hammer blow was when a scrum on halfway from the kick-off followed the Tigers’ second penalty. The ball was spun wide right quickly, only this time tackles were missed and Tigers had an 11 – 6 lead.

Early in the second period, Sodbury got a chance to create. Cook collected the ball, broke two tackles and dragged the final defender over the line as he scored.

Tom Head pounced on a loose ball shortly afterwards, flew past the big men and outpaced the cover from 25m out for a fantastic solo effort that Cook converted.

After getting the restart under control, Head launched a box-kick from his own 10m line. Horton once more rose above the melee and set up a ruck. Now Sodbury were flowing, they swept the play from the right to the far left and back again, with some wondrous handling interspersed with direct physicality. Eventually things ground to a halt in a pile of bodies 5m short of the Tigers’ tryline. On hand was Horton, who grasped the ball in his outstretched hands and threw himself forward leaving Cook to convert again.

On the hour, as Keeping made way for Lee Ralph, Sodbury had a rare second half penalty; J.Cook made easy work of it from 25m. Sodbury did leak a try at the end though. However, this couldn’t take the gloss off a win on the road for the high flying visitors.