Glory day for Cinderford after stunning fightback
CINDERFORD boss Paul Morris said he was in awe at his side’s second-half performance as they came from 31-5 down.
Caldy had the wind in their favour in the first half and kept Cinderford in their final third.
Cinderford did well in the opening minutes but could not stop Caldy’s Nyle Davidson crossing for the opening try. Caldy pressurised again from the kick-off and good handling from Ben Jones split the defence to score.
Within seconds, the Cinderford defence were unable to stop Jones, who ran in for a second try. Royle then ran in for his second of the afternoon, securing a bonus point.
However, two minutes later Caldy's defence was caught napping allowing Sam Smith to run in to score in Cinderford's only attack of the half in what was a pivotal point.
Cinderford came out firing in the second half with captain George Porter scoring to reduce the lead within four minutes.
Cinderford’s half-time substitute Nathan Taylor finished a fabulous move to score another which seemed to lift the visitors.
From another poor lineout, Cinderford were in again. This time, it was replacement Tom Heard who scored just after the hour to start a sevenminute try frenzy. Arron Ryan levelled the scores and George Boulton scored the winning try with ten minutes remaining.
A jubilant Morris said: “The wind had a huge effect on the game. I thought Caldy were outstanding in the first half.
“At 26-0 they looked like they were going to score every time they had the ball. It’s a hard place to be
at half-time – 31-5 is a big hole to be in.
“Ultimately, scoring that try into the wind in the first half was the factor.
“To score 33 points to nil in the second half, I’m utterly in awe of my players.
“There was a lot said at half-time and a lot of it’s private.
“We asked them to look inside themselves.
“We believe we have something special in our club and I think we conclu- sively showed that in the second half.”
A deflated Simon Verbickas was measured despite the demoralising defeat.
“I’ve been involved in quite a few crazy games, but I’ve never seen a game change so much from one side to another,” he admitted.
“That’s the good thing about rugby. One minute you can be winning and the next it changes completely. was a massive game of contrasting halves.
“I don’t think we exited as well as we should have done and, instead of keeping hold of the ball, we just kept turning it over to them quite cheaply.
“So, at the end of the day they deserved to win and we didn’t.
“As long as we learn from it, it’s not the end of the world.
“It won’t have been for nothing.”