A ruthless away performance from Cinderford saw them run out 27-13 winners against Blackheath at Well Hall on Saturday.
The win sees Cinderford climb to eighth, with Blackheath remaining in third, eight points behind leaders Richmond.
The game started in a typical dominant fashion from Blackheath. Straight from kick-off, the South-East London side were straight into Cinderford’s 22 and after 10 minutes of constant pressure, a penalty was finally conceded.
From the resulting penalty, Blackheath chose to kick for the corner, and from the line-out were able to push over a driving maul for the first try of the day, the scorer hidden in a pile of bodies.
No End Product
The Blackheath pressure didn’t fade after the restart as they went straight on the attack, winning another penalty five minutes later. This time fly half Mark Cooke opted to kick for goal, agonisingly missing on the right side.
With 20 minutes on the clock, Cinderford had their first meaningful attack of the game. Winning the ball from open play from midfield, the Cinderford forwards were able to draw a penalty, which saw George Barton kick for the corner.
Cinderford won the line-out with ease and after a few phases, prop Tim Brockett crashed over in front of the posts, with Barton adding the extras, 5-7 the score.
Things got worse for the home side when inform full-back Leo Fielding was forced to go off with an elbow injury with just 25 minutes gone.
The next 10 minutes were spent in Cinderford’s, but what occurred became the story of the match as Blackheath were unable to find the killer pass to break the last line of defence, this time settling for a Cooke penalty.
After soaking up the pressure, Cinderford pounced, following a similar passage of play to Blackheath’s try. A driving maul from 10 meters out that contained almost all of the Cinderford side went over, once again with the scorer being hidden away.
Barton once again added the extras, as well as a penalty two minutes later to take the score to 8-17 at half time.
The second half followed a similar pattern as the first, with the first 20 minutes all spent inside the Cinderford half. A missed Penalty by Cooke after 45 minutes, as well as multiple handling errors let the away side off the hook.
And to follow the story of the game, in Cinderford’s first attack of the second half, after a penalty for not rolling away, Barton took the score to 8-20.
Turn Up For The Books
Blackheath showed their frustration as Jamie Ure was sent to the sin-bin for taking a man out in the air after the restart. With Blackheath down to 14 men and 12 points behind with just 10 minutes left, the game was all but over, especially when a clean break saw huge numbers out wide with Terrence Babarinsa eventually going over to put it beyond doubt.
Tom Stradwick was able to score a consolation try in the dying embers of the game but it wasn’t enough as Cinderford took home a 13-27 win back to Gloucester.
Next up for Blackheath is a trip to Birmingham Moseley and Cinderford remain on the road as they travel north to take on Rotherham.
Blackheath Team:
Forwards; Williams, Perks, Herriott, Stradwick, Ure, Poole, Baldwin, Burns
Backs; Liebenberg, Cooke, Dowsett, Burcham(c), Pickersgill, Lloyd, Fielding
Replacements; Fry, Seward, Catt, Ransom, Owen
Cinderford Team:
Forwards; Dawe, Mullis, Brockett, Lemon, Jerrum, Shields, Gilbert, Hone
Backs; Williams, Barton, Bogue, Hayes, Babarinsa, Smith, Sheldon
Replacements; Elliot, Baker, Lane, Dean, Butler
