Cinderford 15 – Blaydon 22

Playing some of their best rugby of the year Blaydon comfortably completed the double over struggling opponents Cinderford, and the winning margin could have been much wider.

The Forest of Dean side had the early wind advantage and secured the only score of the first half from a rare handling movement. Their full-back Mike Wilcox made the initial break from half-way to feed winger Stefan Hawley who raced clear down the left.

Blaydon made inroads into the deficit soon after the restart when Andrew Baggett put over a penalty following an offside, and then ran in the first of their 3 tries, which could have been 4 but for an excellent effort being disallowed.

A Cinderford drop-out was run straight back at them by Craig Willis who moved it on for winger Sean Brown to draw his man and send in skipper Keith Laughlin and make it 5-8.

Pressure in the home 22 soon produced try No2 by lock-forward Will Witty, the man of the match rampaging through the defence to touch down under the posts for Baggett to add the extras.

In their best spell of the half Cinderford re-cycled some good possession to send in prop forward Jack Cosgrove, James Moffatt converting, and the scoreline became a somewhat unrealistic 12-15.

But not for long however as Blaydon once more penned the home side in their own 22 and from a multi-handling movement fly-half Willis, who had a fine game, finished off in style.
In the final minute Cinderford gained a valuable bonus point in the fight to avoid relegation when debutant Callum Sheedy, on loan from Bristol Acadamy, landed a penalty.

John Brennan