Gloucestershire Echo

Penalty try puts gloss on stirring Cinderford fightback

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IN a breathtaki­ng National League One game, Cinderford fought back from a 26-8 deficit to snatch a 27-26 victory over Sale FC.

Sale opened the scoring in the third minute with a try from Kieran Wilkinson, but his conversion failed.

Cinderford responded as Matthew Lane set up Will Hendy to dart over and tie up the game.

However, Sale hit back with three more tries, earning them a bonus point in the first half.

A sublime lineout move saw Josh Brown float a well-placed pass inside to Tom Walsh for his first score and Sale struck again when a loose goal line drop-out exposed space on the blindside for Sam Dugdale to dot down.

From the restart, Mike Austin slotted over a penalty for Cinderford, but set-piece magic from Sale’s Wilkinson saw him step his way to a line break and gave the ball back to Walsh for his second.

Nathan Taylor’s try sent Cinderford into half-time 26-13 down and they got the second half off to a perfect start when Joe Mullis set up Austin to race clear for a try, which he converted to cut the gap to six points. From this point the Foresters dominated, but rarely looked like breaching a wellorgani­sed Sale defence.

But with five minutes remaining a strong driving maul rumbled towards their opponent’s line, only to be brought down illegally and the referee awarded them a penalty try.

There was still late drama however when the visitors were awarded a penalty right on the final whistle, but Wilkinson’s attempt was blown off target allowing Cinderford to celebrate a thrilling victory.

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