Avonmouth Old Boys.......22

Stroud.............................14

By Sean Moore

THIS was a tight West Country cup derby and Stroud acquitted themselves well but came away the losers.

Avonmouth exerted a lot of early pressure but Stroud’s defence won through until they eventually conceded a try in the corner, to trail 5-0.

Stroud Scrum-half Jordan Phipps played well in all aspects of the game with his tackle count being particularly high.

The visitors responded in a brilliant fashion when Dan Gordon made the initial break in his own half.

He cleverly offloaded to supporting Kurtis Herbert who ran strongly for 40 metres. When he was tackled, he passed back to Gordon who scorched his way to a try near the posts, which Herbert converted, to lead 7-5.

Tom Flanagan, continuing to impress with his 100 per cent commitment, acted as a catalyst for the Stroud team.

A further Gordon break almost led to another try in the corner from Sam Hester.

Although outweighed, the Stroud pack performed well with Ollie Smith showing his versatility in all aspects of the game.

Aussie Bob came on for his debut and soon impressed with his uncompromising and direct approach.

Avonmouth regained the lead after taking advantage of a lineout on the Stroud whitewash and scored a trademark catch-and-drive try, to retake the advantage at 12-7.

In the backs, the centre pairing of Harry Foote and Kurtis Herbert were showing great penetration with their forceful and direct running.

Foote made one long break and seemed destined to score before a last-ditch Avonmouth tackle stopped him.

Stroud regained the lead early in the second half when they opened up from their own 22.

A chip ahead bounced favourably for Herbert, who ran strongly for 50 metres to score a try by the posts which he then converted himself to lead 14-12.

With the game on a knife-edge, full-back Hester saved two certain tries with last-ditch tackles before Avonmouth crept into a 15-14 lead with a penalty goal.

Winger Sam Strange did an expert job in covering on his own goal line and prompted a daring counter attack which just fell short of a score.

Stroud’s efforts to win were thwarted by the sin-binning of the effervescent Flanagan and Avonmouth took advantage by scoring a penalty try after a series of collapsed scrums.