Stroud 30

Chipping Sodbury 27

KURTIS HERBERT kept a cool head to slot over a last-gasp penalty to see Stroud defeat Chipping Sodbury 30-27 in a Fromehall Park thriller.

Earlier, Herbert, opened the scoring when cutting a powerful line to surge through a number of tacklers to open the scoring.

Hester extended the lead and Herbert was on hand to convert to open up a 12-0 lead.

Stroud increased their lead when a knock-on was gleefully picked up by Hester, who dived over in the corner. Herbert converted from out wide. 19-0.

Sodbury were far from down and out and were soon back on the attack forcing another penalty at the breakdown. This time they opted for goal and a successful kick put them on the scoreboard just before half-time.

The first 15 minutes of the second half were dominated by Sodbury as they closed the gap to 19-10.

Good recycling allowed Sodbury to retain the ball and work through a number of phases before exploiting an overlap to score in the opposite corner. 19-15.

Sodbury continued to attack and this time they scored under the posts.

Stroud's response was immediate and great work from the kick-off by Higgins and Leworthy forced a turnover. Bashford and Flanagan carried the attack straight to Sodbury and forced a penalty that was kicked by Herbert to level the scores. 22-22.

Stroud were soon back on the attack with Marsh and Gordon feeding Stratton, Stephens, Keightley and Leworthy to carry interspersed with short range drives from Smith and Davies. One last pick and drive from Higgins allowed Marsh to spread play to Gordon, who found Leworthy with a delayed pass to surge over. 27-22.

Stroud continued to take play to Sodbury with Stratton carrying a huge share of ball and Leworthy’s trade-mark hand-off enabling him to power past a number of defenders. Showing his power in defence, a particularly dominant from Leworthy appeared to have dislodged the ball but loose ball was picked up by Sodbury, who worked through a number of phases before their fly-half again cut back blind and this time exploited the gap fully to run into the corner from 50m. 27-27.

Stroud were not prepared to settle for the draw and a pin-point kick from Herbert was acrobatically collected by Leworthy, who drove towards the 22. Stroud now showed extreme patience and controlled the ball through phase after phase. Smith, Stratton and Higgins all carried before Gordon found Phipps coming in off his wing and linking with Hester. Stroud were spreading the ball from side to side and although not making a huge amount of ground, they were most importantly controlling possession in what was now the last play of the game. Stratton, Keightley and Stephens picked and drove towards the posts and eventually forced Sodbury into conceding a penalty at the breakdown. Herbert calmly stepped up and slotted the 3 points to seal an extremely hard fought win, enabling them to remain in 4th place in Western Counties North.

Man of the Match: Josh Stratton

Stroud travel to Chosen Hill FP on Saturday.