Eight tries for to secure top Foresters five finish
CINDERFORD surged to a best ever top-five finish in National League One as Blackheath suffered relegation with this heavy defeat.
The Foresters ran in eight tries, although they went behind when Hennessy dodged in and out of the home defence to claim the head start for Club, following up his own try up with a successful conversion.
It didn’t take long, however, for Cinderford to take matters into their own hands, and an impressive crossfield kick was successfully received by Andrew, who darted his way through Blackheath’s defence and offloaded perfectly to allow Wilcox to score. Boughton converted the try to level the scores.
Boughton’s kick found touch to set up Cinderford for a lineout as the home team stuck to what they do best. Their driving maul appeared almost impossible to defend against and Taylor snuck out the back to score followed by another successful conversation by Boughton.
Blackheath remained on Cinderford’s tail for a while longer as Hennessy worked his way around the hosts and shot through the gap to claim a second try. He then levelled the scores with a comfortable conversion.
Boughton kicked for touch as Blackheath were penalised for a high tackle and Cinderford took the opportunity to perform another impressive maul from which Taylor found the line to snatch back the lead, Boughton again kicking the convertion.
Cinderford then found themselves with a scrum just metres from the line, and Hone picked up the ball at the back to pop it to scrum-half Mike Austin, who scored yet another for the home side. Boughton’s conversion made the half-time score 28-14.
The second half started positively for Cinderford as Boughton kicked a penalty, then
Taylor maintained his record as one of Cinderford’s top try scorers by sealing his hat-trick from yet another driving maul.
Even when Blackheath regained possession momentarily, Lane snatched it from their grasp and shipped the ball down the line to Will Hendy to go over before Andrew
snatched the ball after a Blackheath knock-on and ran almost the length of the pitch to score yet another spectacular Cinderford try.
The visitors refused to give up, however, and James Catt scored two tries, both successfully converted by Hennessey. But Cinderford had the last word as Matt Lane danced around the opposition to score the final try.
Paul Morris, Cinderford’s director rugby, was thrilled at the performance on the final day of the season.
“I am delighted with our performance today against a very good side,” he said. “Their league position does not reflect the quality of players they’ve got, but today was purely about ourselves as we finished the highest we have since leagues were founded in 1987.
“We deserve to be where we are and I’m very proud of everyone.”