Gloucester 1

Cheltenham Saracens 1sts 11 - Ross on Wye 1sts 10

On Saturday 24^th September Ross took to the field against a large Cheltenham Saracens team. A late withdrawal affected the balance of the scrum and lineouts and seemed to inhibit the team initially. The first ten minutes were spent defending in their own half and with a lack of ball. As Ross managed to address the balance slightly in the scrum the game became a lot more even and gradually Ross got some possession. A couple of phases was bringing potential reviews but not being seen by the team and poor decision making was costing them field position and territory. Finally after 30 minutes the team paid the price with a number of quick penalties for Cheltenham who attacked the Ross and after initial excellent tackling from the team with Casey Morgan to the fore Cheltenham managed to move the ball to their left wing who evaded the last ditch tackle of Craig Smith to touch down.

This seemed to jolt the Ross team into action and firstly a searing break from Gareth Holdsworth was stopped a metre from the try line. Then after a massively promising line out and maul a poor decision meant the ball turnover when it looked like were definitely over for a score. This then meant that Ross went in 5 – 0 down at half time.

Having lost Rod from the 2^nd row just before half time the balance of the scrum was further disrupted and with the team falling foul of the referees whistle after half time Cheltenham dominated possession and territory which saw Ross camped in their half for virtually all of the 2^nd half. One episode did see Ross 15 minutes from time manage to break out and after great off load from Casey Morgan and quick hands from Chay Brine , the electric Ali Hunter Blair beat his winger and the fall back to cruise in under the posts.

However straight after this Ross had 2 players sinned bin and despite a massive effort from Dave Mince, Chris Price and Wayne Williams in the front row they were unable to combat the size at scrum time of the opposition. This resulted in a penalty to Saracens which the 9 kicked between the posts to leave Ross 8 – 7 behind with 8 minutes to play.

A huge effort saw a weaving run from Josh Morgan lead to good field position and after Gavin carried the ball up Ross gained a penalty with 3 minutes to go. This was a good 35 metres out but Casey showed icy nerves to kick it and put Ross ahead 10 – 8.

The next couple of minutes saw Ross defended stoutly as per all game with Jake making a number of tackles but despite trying best not to give a penalty away a harsh penalty from the referee gave Saracens a chance to win the game. The 9 duly obliged and Ross were behind with a minute to go.

Saracens managed to retain the ball from the kick off and sent Ross back down to their try line, and Ross obtained a penalty but needed to obviously go up the length of the pitch to win. They made a number of quick yards and the referee finally started to ping Saracens at the breakdown for infringements and just when it looked like Ross were going to create a chance to win the game the opposition prop knocked the ball down on purpose. This should have meant a penalty to Ross in similar position to where Casey had kicked the previous one however the referee called knock on and the game was over.

Whilst it was a disappointing result where a lack of ball and territory handicapped Ross, the team have shown over the past few weeks how stoutly they can defend. Back at home to Dursley on Saturday 8^th October will hopefully see Ross produce a greater amount of ball and see the team express their clear ability with ball in hand.