Thomas double seals Golden finish to the perfect campaign

» ALL Golds were indebted to scrumhalf Callum Merrett and stand-off Dieter Thomas as they completed an unbeaten West of England campaign by wresting the title away from Swindon St George in the rain in Bristol.

Thomas showed quick thinking as he crossed twice from close range while Merrett’s man of the match performance was capped with a fine individual try in a 22-14 success.

There was little to choose between the sides in an attritional game, Swindon’s extra size edging a tight, forward-dominated first half 6-4.

The All Golds dominated the third quarter, Thomas and Merrett doing the damage and stepped up their defensive intensity to withstand a late siege to take the crown.

St George wasted two great opportunities before deservedly taking the lead on 21 minutes, Sam Hodge bashing his way over from dummy half to cut the gap before the break.

Six minutes into the second half, the Swindon goal-line defence was found wanting as Thomas slipped through a gap for his first try.

Holden added the goal but Swindon were soon back on terms.

But the Wiltshire side lost possession early in their next set, gifting the All Golds field position and Merrett accepted the gift, Holden making no mistake with the extras.

Despite losing Sam Hodge to the sin bin along with Swindon’s Sam Collins, they extended their advantage when Thomas took advantage of Swindon’s disorganised defence, Holden adding the extra to put two scores between the sides.

The game began to get scrappy and Josh Verity went over to cut the gap.

As the hot summer broke so Swindon threatened to break the All Golds 100 per cent record and retain their crown but the All Golds proved that they can dig deep and battle out the tough games as well as rack up cricket scores.