RUGBY: Fairford deny Tetbury with late length-of-the-field try

A DEPLETED Fairford side dug deep to edge past tough local rivals Tetbury to maintain a 100 per cent start to their season in the Gloucester Three division, writes Kenny Robins and Stephen Knight.

The visitors couldn’t have got off to a better start.

From a lineout minutes in, young fly-half Ben Cohoon took the ball to the line, before offloading to Sam Johnson who scored under the sticks. Sam Young, regaining kicking duties, duly converted.

The hosts reacted positively and enjoyed considerable territory for the remainder of the half. Then a great try by Ben Curtis from a driving maul at a lineout got Tetbury back in the game.

Tetbury’s continued pressure culminated in Fairford full back Jake Page-Maskell being sin-binned at the end of the half, with Tetbury in prime position to take advantage of the slope in their favour during the second period.

In spite of this, the visiting Badgers managed to rally hard and were awarded a penalty, which Young guided through the posts to give them a foothold.

Another penalty close to the posts met a similar fate as Young took the score to 8-13.

But then the tide turned again, Tetbury scoring a converted try out wide from a scrum after a set of behemoth replacements entered the fold.

This put the home side ahead by two points (15-13).

The hosts started to gain more territory going into the last 15 minutes and the intensity of the game notably increased.

This was personified by debutant and Fairford MoM Will Findlay-Wilson whose tackles were as ferocious as they were frequent.

As Tetbury pushed for the killer try, they lost possession and Fairford went the length of the field to score a well taken converted try.

It was Findlay-Wilson who ripped the ball from contact and moved the ball to space where Cohoon and Young combined to set Johnson free and he ran in from 50 metres out, finishing off a superb counter attack.

That completed the scoring to maintain Fairford’s position as second in the table.

Fairford host Aretians and Tetbury visit Gloucester All Blues in the next Gloucester Three league matches on Saturday, November 5.