Fairford 15 Dursley 17

DURSLEY edged this close-fought top of the table clash at Fairford, writes Ian Perrett.

Dursley made a dream start from the get-go. An intelligent kick through from Lennard was collected by Camm and his strong run resulted in an off load to Chappell who bundled the last man out of the way for a try in the corner, Lennard missing the difficult conversion.

On 15 minutes Chappell found himself having a 10-minute rest following a deliberate pat down of the ball. Dursley were left with seven in the pack, five metres out against a challenging pack of considerable size, it was no surprise to see the number eight flop over the line for five points, the conversion was missed. The next 15 minutes saw an even game taking place either side of the halfway with good attacking and defending in equal measures for the large crowd to enjoy.

Dursley took the lead on 33 minutes when Chappell picked up the ball made a powerful 20 metre run and, in the tackle, off-loaded to Plumridge who was unstoppable from 10 metres, the conversion was missed for a half-time score of Fairford 5 Dursley 10.

The visitors second half got off to the worst possible start when some poor defending saw the home sides scrum dance down the wing to score in the corner, a missed conversion followed. This got was compounded four minutes later with another score in the corner from the home side the resulting conversion hitting the post for 15-10.

The game was being played up front where Fairford were used to having the weight advantage at the scrum and breakdowns, however they weren’t having it their own way.

Dursley’s pack once again were majestic in attack and defence and following several reset scrums the home side’s prop saw yellow for persistent infringements as the pack tried to stop a backward momentum.

Dursley pushed the seven-man Fairford pack back over their line for Camm to pick up a scrum score, Boucher stepped up for the two points to take the score to 15-17.

Dursley now found themselves under relentless pressure from Fairford who were urged on by the partisan crowd, the effort was apparent from the entire Dursley 15 as they finished the strongest despite several reset scrums where a score looked certain, the final play found the ball resting in-front of the posts, however a Dursley leg secured the turnover which saw Dursley nestle into third.