GARETH PONSFORD’S late penalty miss denied Cainscross victory in this close-fought friendly.

Earlier, Dougal Elliot’s tackling prevented an early Hucclecote try. Meanwhile, Adam Carter, playing at scrum-half, was a constant thorn in the side of his opposite number, and he was able to wrestle the ball free and make a good break up the pitch to relive the pressure on the home side.

After a number of phases and a turnover the ball was kicked downfield for a lineout inside the Cainscross 22. A catalogue of errors occurred behind the line out with the result that an extremely grateful attacker was able to fall on the ball for a very soft converted try. The resulting restart did not travel 10 metres and so Hucclecote had a scrum in the centre of the pitch. The Cainscross pack did very well and were able to win the ball against the head, and Carter made a fantastic break, taking the ball almost to the try line, the ball was recycled a number of times before Carter spotted a gap and jinked his way through the defence to score directly under the posts, Bodge Elliot missed the conversion to give Hucclecote a 7-5 half-time lead.

Messy affair The second half was a messy affair as a large number of substitutions from both teams prevented any structure from developing.

Elliot missed another penalty attempt before Hucclecote scored three penalties of their own to give them a 16-5 lead with less than five minutes to play.

Cainscross picked themselves up and threw everything into the last attack. Cainscross battled down into the Hucclecote 22, thanks to strong drives from Dougal Elliot, Jamie Marsh and Kev Banks.

From one drive a Hucclecote player prevented the ball being played in a try scoring position and the referee had no hesitation in giving a penalty try, Ponsford’s conversion was charged down. Seemingly instantly, Cainscross found themselves attacking deep into the Hucclecote 22 and against all odds they were awarded another try when Matt Valley crashed over the line in the corner.

Ponsford’s conversion to win the game drifted just wide and, in a game that only really came to life in the last 5 minutes, Cainscross and Hucclecote players alike could hardly believe 16-15 final score.