Gloucester Premier

St Mary's Old Boys 24

Cirencester 29

CIRENCESTER had to withstand a rousing St Mary's comeback to record a bonus-point victory in their opening game of the season.

Ciren scored five tries and created a further six or seven opportunities that should have finished the game off at an early stage.

They started at a high tempo and the first score came within a minute when man of the match James Fisher cut the St Mary's defence apart with great footwork to go under the posts; Fisher then converted his own try to give Cirencester a seven-point lead.

Cirencester continued to apply pressure for long periods and were rewarded with their second try after 13 minutes when the forwards recycled ball well and second row Sam Hill crashed over from close range.

The Cirencester front row of Will Hunt, Ollie Stuart and Scott Branreth were dominant at the scrum which gave the back row a great platform to play off and the third try came after 19 minutes when a good break by centre Dave Evans put Fisher clear; Fisher added the conversion for a 0-19 scoreline.

St Mary's rallied and on the half-hour mark kicked to the Cirencester five-metre line and eventually bundled over to score.

Cirencester regrouped and should have increased the lead only for the final pass on three occasions to let them down.

They did manage to add a further score before the break when captain Alex Hammond finished off a slick handling move, but St Mary's replied with a penalty to make the half-time score 8-24.

After the break Cirencester seemed to fall foul of the Bristol referee as he gave a succession of penalties against them for offences at the scrum and breakdown.

St Mary closed the gap with an excellent move that cut the Cirencester defence apart before scoring under the posts and converting (15-24).

Cirencester fought back and Fisher completed his hat-trick when beating three would-be tacklers. But the hat-trick hero turned villain when he was caught in possession on his own 22 and quick recycling by St Mary's saw them scoring out wide to reduce the deficit (20-29).

Cirencester's constant defensive work began to take its toll with fly half Joe Gale, prop Will Hunt and No.8 Alex Hammond all having to leave the field with injuries; Hammond did return once his cut was repaired.

St Mary's closed the gap still further through a disputed try with four minutes remaining and Ciren to a man stood their ground and tackled until the final whistle.

A very entertaining game with both teams playing some great rugby and Luke Armitage deserves credit for a good performance at scrum half on his first team debut.