CLEVE started their home game with Cinderford II well, moving the ball across the field and putting on of the division’s leading teams under pressure.
Cleve’s centres made telling breaks into the Cinderford 22 as they dominated the game in territory and possession during the early stages.
But Cinderford are a top team in this part of England and showed their worth when they got close to Cleve’s line.
After a kick, a catch and drive saw Cinderford’s forwards gain control of the ball, leading to a try.
Cleve’s response was again to exert pressure, starting to drive the ball towards the line.
In the 26th minute a Cleve scrum led to an attack towards Cinderford’s line. Approaching the 5m line, Cleve’s forwards began to recycle the ball well.
Will Warman took advantage of this by distributing the ball to the backs.
Good interplay between the fly-half and centres took the ball to the line, and one went over to level the scores at 7-all.
Cinderford now started to run the ball from all positions. A penalty led to a lineout near Cleve’s line. The Cinderford forwards were clinical, and went over in the front part of the line to make it 14 to 7 in favour of the visitors at half-time.
The second half started as the first half finished: the Cinderford forwards gained control and fabricated a score, to make it 21-7.
This led to more effort by Cleve, who again dominated in possession and territory, but Cinderford were decisive and clinical when they got into the ball, moving to the wing and scoring to make it 26-7.
This time Cleve responded with two tries: first the ball found its way into the wing’s hand and he scored on the wing, then a great break by the centres led to a try by the full-back, to make it 19 to 26.
Cleve had fought their way back into the game, but then it was Cinderford’s turn to ensure they completed the match in control, gaining possession and scoring another try to make the final score Cleve 19, Cinderford 31.
Steve Bateman