Amps maintain promotion push by felling Foresters
AMPTHILL kept their promotion challenge on track, but they had to survive a tremendous second-half comeback from Cinderford before scoring an injury-time try to earn a hard-fought bonus point victory.
The visitors were in control for much of the first half, showing excellent ball-retention skills and some very clinical finishing.
But Ampthill head coach Paul Turner admits the second 40 minutes was something of a different story.
He said: “Obviously I’m happy to get the result and I thought we beat Cinderford at their own game in the first half.
“But they are a good side and fair play to them they made a real game of it in the second half.”
They scored their opening try in the 11th minute, after a sustained spell of pressure near their opponents line eventually led to hooker Olly Walliker forcing his way over from close range, with James Pritchard landing the conversion.
The home side responded with a brief period of ascendancy and when they were awarded a penalty, Dan Pointon was on target with his kick at goal.
Back came Ampthill as they went through the phases before secondrower Jon Kpoku crashed over near the posts, with Pritchard adding the conversion.
Cinderford’s George Boulton was shown a yellow card and Pointon missed a tough penalty chance before the visitors increased their advantage as half-time approached when flanker Will Allman dotted down, with Pritchard once again bolting on the extras.
The second half began as the first had ended, but Cinderford were gaining the advantage at the scrum, enabling them to clear their lines and when replacement Liam Hemming chipped ahead, Reuben Norville caught the ball and raced over for an unconverted try.
The momentum in the match was now with the home side and more powerful scrummaging led to the referee awarding them a penalty try as their opponent’s set-piece came under pressure.
The try of the match followed as Cinderford took the ball up field from their own 22 and eventually were able to create the space out wide for winger Sam Smith to score, but crucially the difficult conversion was missed.
As the game went into added time, Ampthill launched one final attack and replacement Tadgh McElroy was driven over the line to be awarded the try and earn his team a bonus point.
And although they ultimately ended up empty-handed, Cinderford director of rugby Paul Morris was pleased by the resilience his team showed after the break.
“There were a few strong words said at half-time and the team really responded really well to that,” he explained.
“We missed a couple of kicks which could have proved decisive, but at least we got a point.”