Chipping Sodbury suffered a narrow defeat away at Gordano.

The hosts breached a gap at the edge of a maul early on and Sodbury found themselves seven points behind.

Sodbury replied when Joe Horton fed Jon Cook, who poured through the gap and scored in the corner.

However, Two quick breaks from Gordano off the side was all it took for them to extend their lead.

Five minutes later, Pete Butcher rose from the back of a scrum on Gordano’s 10m line, burst forward, before passing to Bradley.

Sods sent play raging through six rucks and the ball went right to Dan Cole who bamboozled the hosts before passing to Gavin Edgar, who looked set for another long-distance try but was pulled down. As the forwards poured in, he was back on his feet in time to scoop it up and dive in at the corner from one metre.

Sodbury spent the rest of the half soaking up pressure. Barnes and Jason Petchey were tackling like demons along with Dave Turner in an effort to repel Gordano. There was also strong over-the-ball work from Butcher, Hollywell and Tom Head – between them, they won crucial turnovers and forced penalties, keeping the sharks from scoring.

During the second half, Sodbury struggled to get any speed into their rucking game and the pressure-relieving touch-finders were agonisingly short. Despite heroic defending from Bradley, Horton, and Barnes, Sodbury’s thin back-line was breached from a driving lineout from eight metres. Five minutes later, the hosts poured further woe on Sodbury with a well-executed grubber behind the defence from the edge of the 22which produced a converted try and the score was 24–10.

In the last quarter, Butcher won a crucial turnover in the 22, then snow-ploughed the Gordano tacklers away from the back of a scrum. The ball went left to substitute Jack Skelton who slipped it out of a tackle to Edgar who went onto to score a 70 metre try. With his parents at fever pitch in the stand, Edgar then set off and saw off four men on his way to the posts which left an easy conversion for Cook.

Ten minutes later, Gordano converted a penalty on Sodbury’s 22 but Sodbury raced back at Gordano and got a penalty on their 22. Cook down the three-pointer and kicked for the lineout which was won and dragged down illegally. As Sodbury’s penalties mounted,they kept scrummaging.

Eventually, they sent them backwards. Tom Head powered over for a try which, once converted, brought Sodbury to within three points of victory.

The two bonus points on the road elevated them to 5th in Western Counties North.