A FINE second-half display saw Cirencester come out on top in this must-win game at fellow strugglers Oldfield.

Tribute Western Counties North

Oldfield Old Boys 7

Cirencester 25

Ciren were immediately put on the back foot by a well-drilled Oldfield pack.

Wave upon wave of attacks kept Ciren pegged back and pressured them into conceding penalties. Only some stout defence stopped Oldfield scoring two line-out catch and drives from five-metres out.

Finally, after 28 minutes, the referee lost patience and sent Mark Brereton to the sin-bin for ten minutes.

With Cirencester’s first real attack of the game on 34 minutes, Oldfield were slow to roll away and the resulting long-range penalty was slotted over by Parry to give Ciren a 3-0 half-time lead.

At the start of the second half, Cirencester upped the tempo and their forwards' pick-and-go tactics were causing the Oldfield side problems.

Three minutes into the second half, Parry slotted another penalty to extend the lead to 6-0.

Cirencester were growing in confidence and started to bring their backs into the game and 17 minutes in, Seb Genillard broke a couple of tackles and raced to the line to score a try out wide to make it 11-0.

From the restart, Oldfield could have reduced the deficit but flankers Allen and Renowden covered acres of ground to stem each attack.

Midway through the half, Cirencester started to dominate the play with skipper Alex Hammond a key force.

In one passage of play, all the forwards were involved but a clever pick-and-go and offload by Bunce gave Allen the space to go over for a converted try that put Cirencester 18-0 ahead.

Oldfield, to their credit, did not drop their heads and continued to push hard.

But from one of their attacks, a quick turnover saw Ciren go the length of pitch only for Oldfield to slow the ball down resulting in a yellow card.

A tap-and-go saw the forwards draw in the defence and a snipe from Parry saw him go over under the posts for another converted try.

With five minutes left, Cirencester were pushing hard for the bonus point try but a silly offload gifted the ball to Oldfield and, with Cirencester’s defence in disarray for the first time in the game, the hosts crossed the line to score a converted try.