Gloucester Premier

Cirencester 15 Berry Hill 10

CIRENCESTER completed a double over Berry Hill at a wet and windy Whiteway on Saturday for the first time in four years, closing the gap on their second-placed opponents to just two points with a game in hand.

The early exchanges were dominated by The Foresters, who drove short from every breakdown, picking and going from the base of the rucks. They were making big gains with this ploy, using their physicality to good effect.

The home side, however, defended with great spirit, heart and skill. The Ciren line was eventually broken, the Hill scrum-half Gareth Morgan drawing the cover before neatly feeding number eight and captain Kurt Brown who crashed over.

Ciren hit back with the impressive Joe Hammond kicking a penalty from 30 metres.

The home side were now in the match. Darren Moore took a quick tap penalty to feed the dangerous Sam Griffiths who made a fine break. From the resulting quick ruck the ball was fed to Hammond who hit the line at full speed breaking two tacklers before offloading to new signing Kieran Kelly who powered over under the posts; Hammond added the extras to take the score to 10-5.

As they had done many times in the first half Ciren gave away a needless penalty and this allowed the Hill men to kick the ball deep into the home side's half. From the resulting line-out a Hill prop took the score to 10-10 at half-time.

Within seconds of the restart Ciren workhorse James Renowden regained the ball and Moore fed his half-back partner Ollie Newman who had switched with Joe Hammond in midfield.

The ball was spread to the blind side and an injection of pace from Adam Seager saw him fend off a defender and pass to Griffiths, who showed great pace through the mud to score.

The home side then took control without adding any further scores in the half. Against a tiring Berry Hill. Neil Bunce, Aaron Lockitt, skipper Will McCarthy, Chris Thorn, Doug Cooper, Luke Fisher, and Alex Hammond will all have pleased director of rugby Andy Deacon with their hard work and application.

It was also a winning afternoon for Cirencester's second XV who won 7-5 against Brockworth II. Steve McFarlane scored the try and Adam Barker converted.

A good day at the office for Club Ciren who all then enjoyed the Scotland v England RBS Six Nations match in the clubhouse with a fund raising raffle and curry.