Gloucester Premier

Bream 7 Cirencester 33

CIRENCESTER extended their points lead at the top of the Gloucester Premier with a five-try bonus-point victory at Bream on Saturday. Player-coach Adam Seager secured his first man of the match award with superb leadership, decision making and defensive work.

Cirencester started well and dominated the territorial battle but strong defence from Bream denied them.

In fact Bream had the first penalty shot and narrowly missed which was their only real chance of points in the first half.

Cirencester dominated in the set plays and props Neil Bunce and ex-England U16 player Will Hunt were on top form combining power and experience to take control at the scrummage.

The Ciren forwards were rampant and broke the gain line with superb running from depth, setting up opportunities for the backs to exploit.

The first score came when Seager put Luke Newman away on the wing to cross out wide; James Fisher converted. Seager began the next scoring move, finding Fisher who cut a superb line before feeding Newman for his second try.

Fisher then got in on the scoring act himself with a great surging run to score under the posts before converting to put Cirencester 0-19 after 26 minutes. Cirencester added another score before half-time with winger Ollie Newman crossing out wide and Fisher converted to make it 0-26 at the break.

The forwards joined in on the scoring when lock Sam Hill crashed over from a ruck; Fisher added another conversion.

Bream never gave up and enjoyed a good 10-minute period of control in the second half which was rewarded with a converted try to close the gap.

With the match over as a contest, however, Cirencester made changes to rest key players with slight niggles.

Former RFU panel referee Tim Beddow did lose his patience when the Bream open side after an earlier warning and sent him to the sin bin for stamping.

Credit should go to the referee who allowed the game to flow and encouraged the players to play.

Coach Kevin Powderly said: “It was a good performance, but not a complete one.

“We are starting to put things together and the continuity was good today but we know we must keep improving to reach the standards that we want to achieve.

“Certain players have stood out over the past few weeks with their personal fitness levels and attitude in training which is now bearing fruit in their consistent performances.

“Scott Brandreth, Will McCarthy, James Renowden and James Fisher are all setting the standards required to perform to the level required to succeed.

“The whole squad now need to reach those levels as it is well within their capabilities.

“I am really pleased with the attitude of the young players – we fielded three 17-year-olds today and they all looked comfortable with one of them (Newman) bagging two tries.”