Gloucester/Somerset Premier play-off

Winscombe 21 Cirencester 22

BACKS man of the match Jack Lister held his nerve to kick Cirencester into a one-point lead via a penalty with five minutes remaining - and Winscombe's last gasp penalty attempt drifted two metres wide prompting a mass invasion of the pitch from the passionate and relieved travelling support.

After a long season consisting of 22 league games which saw them finish second in the Gloucester Premier, Ciren had won their play-off to book a place in next season's Western Counties North.

Three coachloads full of players and coaches, along with many more travelling down to Somerset by car, swelled the crowd and made for a great atmosphere, which was not dampened by the hail storm just before kick-off.

The game started at a frenetic pace with both sides showing why they were worthy play-ff sides. Winscombe were enjoying the greater possession, but the Ciren players were defending heroically. Both wingers Rich Tremblen and James Isaacs made superb covering tackles. But eventually Winscombe did breach the Ciren line and kicked the conversion to lead 7-0.

Then the try of the season was scored by Seb Genillard, the Ciren loose head, who ran from his own half, bursting through tackles and outpacing the covering defence to score a quite brilliant solo try which, with Lister kicking the conversion, drew the scores level.

The Ciren team were now truly in the game with forwards and backs constantly stretching the Winscombe defence.

Another Gloucestershire try soon followed with centre Dave Evans crashing over in the corner (7-12).

The visitors now believed they could win the game.

The second period started as the first had finished as Ciren attacked with pace and power. It was not long before Ciren scored again, with the superb skipper Will McCarthy crashing over from a excellent drive; Lister added the extras to make it 7-19.

Ciren were now in the driving seat, but they knew Winscombe would hit back, and so they did.

From a driving maul the Ciren line was breached and the successful conversion from out wide brought the score to 14-19.

Both sets of supporters were in full voice and this seemed to galvanise the home team.

Winscombe's cause was helped when Ciren second row Alex Buchalik received a yellow card and while Cirencester were down to 14 men, Winscombe took the lead with a converted try.

To The Whiteway team's credit they did not panic, but there was a long 10 minutes still to be played. They stretched the home defence, which resulted in a penalty and Lister dealt with the pressure to put Ciren back in front.

In the nailbiting final five minutes Ciren repelled everything that Winscombe threw at the them, and when the last kick of the game was missed their promotion to the Western Counties North league was confirmed.

The front five comprising Genillard, Luke Fisher, Neil Bunce, Buchalik, and Aaron Lockitt had been immense all game, laying the foundations for the win.

The sterling back row of McCarthy, Matt Wood and Matt Berry (forwards' MoM), were simply too good for their Winscombe counterparts.

The half backs Darren Moore and Lister controlled the game, always making the correct decisions, while the mid-field had a balanced and polished look throughout.

Kieran Kelly showed what a special player he is and Evans' pace, power and bravery was incredible.

The back three of Barrie Davies, Tremblen and Isaacs showed pace and skill – and defended as if their lives depended on it.

Meanwhile the strong bench (Luke Newman, Zeb Waite, Doug Cooper, Paddy Tarleton and Rhys Owen) gave the Red and Black the depth, energy and resources to see out the win.