Thornbury Rugby fell to defeat against a powerful Keynsham side that performed better on the day.

Playing away at Keynsham would always be a tough task for the Thorns and they were undone early on when the home side scored a penalty to make it 3-0.

This was then closely followed by a try and a conversion that put Thornbury 10-0 behind.

The visitors almost responded immediately, but after a fine move the broke down just five metres from the line.

They did get their try just minutes later though, with Jake Wood taking a quick penalty and feeding Alfie Richardson who took on the defence and passed to Dan Hussey to score.

The conversion missed but Thornbury were back in the game.

After dominating much of the play from then on, the Thorns were left to rue missed chances as Keynsham got a try against the run of play to make it 17-5 at the break.

That knocked the stuffing out of the team, with the Keynsham pack starting to use their experience to slow the game down. They then went ahead and secured two further tries to make it 27-5.

Jak Evans and Johnny Heaven were then binned by the referee as tensions threatened to boil over.

Evans was given a yellow, but Heaven was punished by being sent off after punching a Keynsham player.

Thornbury then had to play the remainder of the match with just 13 men.

They conceded another try just moments later.

With the match ticking in to stoppage time though, the team did not give up and were rewarded for hard work and character.

Louis Ogilvie received the ball on his own ten metre line, rounded his opponent and had the blistering pace to make it in to score.

Wood then stood up and converted, but the Thorns had been well beaten in the match 34-12.

It was just what the Thorns did not need as they look to secure their league status.

They now go in to their next match against Teignmouth with the loser potentially going down.