Rugby Early tries set up Clifton for hard-fought win against Hinckley
CLIFTON came through a difficult test against Hinckley as the National Two South newcomers threw everything at the lavender and blacks at a rainsodden Station Road.
Clifton got the best of the early exchanges and were quickly on the scoresheet as they stretched Hinckley’s defence. Rory Vowles was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on, and Clifton were awarded a penalty try.
Clifton quickly capitalised on the pressure as Andrew Simmers darted over from close range to double the score within minutes. Jac Lloyd adding the extras.
However, Hinckley began to find their feet and their set-piece started cause the Clifton pack problems. Poor discipline at the breakdown led to the Hornets gaining field position and a good driving lineout secured five points as Matt Fearn dotted down. Joe Wilson added the conversion.
The second half became a real arm wrestle, with Clifton banging away at the Hornets line, with Niall Gibbons and Ciaran Moore at the heart of the attacks, but they were unable to breach their solid defence. Lloyd and Wilson swapped penalties with Clifton leading 20-10 with minutes to go. The Hinckley set-piece again proved a weapon for the visitors as they won a penalty in the dying minutes, for Wilson to slot the conversion to take a losing bonus point away from Station Road.
» Dings Crusaders made it two wins in a row, thanks to a 17-0 victory over Canterbury, who slipped to their second consecutive defeat.
The weather conditions played its part in a physical and, at times, attritional encounter, but it was the visitors that made the most of
things when they had the elements in their favour. Canterbury created chances, but were routinely repelled by the visitors’ defence, with veteran lock Danny Hodge at the heart of the Dings’ effort.
Playing down the slope and with the driving rain at their backs in the first half, Crusaders opened the scoring when flanker Tom Anderson burrowed over from the back of a maul for an unconverted try.
Canterbury tried to break out of their half but were unable to get past the Dings defence and went further behind when an attempted clearance kick was charged down by debutante centre Tom Price, who regathered to score under the posts. Fly-half Ben Bolster added
the extras to make it 12-0 at the turnaround.
The visitors went further ahead early in the second half when replacement prop Josh Lloyd rumbled over from close range to open up a 17-point advantage. Canterbury had the bulk of the play for the remainder of the match, but handling errors, poor option taking and resilient defence thwarted their progress.
Dings reinforced their defensive line by introducing back-rower Josh Body for his debut as well as stalwart Steve Plummer, who was making his 250th appearance for the royal blue and blacks. Plummer made a number of tackles to keep Canterbury out and Dings went on to celebrate the second away win of their campaign - a win which sees them move up to sixth in the National Two South table. Dings host leaders Worthing Raiders at Shaftesbury Park this weekend.
Dings Knights, meanwhile, were beaten 22-14 by Old Cryptians in their Gloucester Premier second round match at Tuffley Avenue. The Knights took a 14-0 lead, thanks to tries from full-back Ian Clark and flanker James Luck, with fly-half Ollie Millner adding both conversions. But that’s as good as it got for Dings, as the home side battled back to claim the win.
» This report first appeared on www.pitchero.com/clubs/dingscrusadersrfc.