Cainscross..................................10

Stroud Nomads.........................17

CAINSCROSS played Stroud Nomads for the first time in more than eight years on Saturday at Marling School.

The game started at a frenetic pace with Nomads showing their intent from the start, but were met with resolute defence epitomised by the fearless Jack Rice.

However, Nomads took the lead with a try and conversion.

Cainscross found their feet and Ash Nash bundled over the line, conversion missed.

Silly errors and penalties meant that Cainscross couldn’t build the momentum to breach the line after the break, and the Nomads scored a second try.

With 10 minutes to go Cainscross turned to their forward dominance again and drove play through lineouts and scrums to Nomads 22, captain Carter made one of his trademark jinking runs only to inexplicably drop the ball just shy of the line.

The scrum saw the ball go wide to the irrepressible Laurence Coates who jinked towards the line ably assisted over it by George Gilks.

With minutes left in the game Cainscross looked to recycle the ball quickly and use the pace of O Connel and Coates, Pollard drove the ball into traffic, sucking in a number of Nomads players, the ball came out with O Dowd showing superb acceleration to take the ball further into Stroud territory.

Unfortunately the ball was turned over and Nomads secured the ball and kicked out to end a thoroughly entertaining game.