Gloucester Premier League

Cirencester 17 Barton Hill 25

ON a wet, windy afternoon at the Whiteway, Cirencester welcomed the top team in the league.

As in previous weeks, Cirencester started brightly with some controlled rugby, keeping possession and playing deep in the Barts territory.

James Firth, the lively Cirencester scrum half, fed quick ball to his half-back partner Iwan Thomas who dummied and sliced through the Barts defence to glide under the posts also converting 7-0.

From the Barts kick off, the ball was not fielded accurately allowing Barts possession in the Ciren half, but the home side defence were in no mood to lie down and allow the Bristol side to score a try.

Their pressure did gain reward with a penalty kick 7-3. Ciren again hit back with good phase of play, which Barts stopped by conceding a penalty, but the Barts players back chatted the referee three times with thirty metre gained, after the referee walked the Barts players back.

Quick thinking from the impressive Thomas, taking a quick tap penalty, he skated again under the posts, whilst the away side defence was in disarray taking the score to 14-3.

Ciren’s Achilles heel was again the kick off coughing up possession enabling the heavy Bristol forwards to batter their way over the Ciren line scoring their first try of the game 14-8.

The home side were not going to lie down with solid scrum with Ciren front Gareth Owen, Noah Newman, and Darren Stephens all playing their part.

More pressure was applied to the away sides line with a resulting home penalty 17-8 at half time and it became game on.

The second half saw the Bristol side enjoying more of the possession and territory.

From two line-out drives, Barts scored two tries to take the lead as the home defence tired.

The Bristol side scored their last try making the final score 17-25.

Once again the Cirencester team can take major positives from the game, pushing the league leader all the way.

Matt Berry, the Cirencester number eight, carried and tackled himself to a standstill and was ably supported in the back row by Ryan Brookes and captain James Renowden.

After getting into good positions to win games in recent months, the next progression for this growing side is to see a game out and gain a positive win.

Meanwhile, Cirencester seconds travelled to the Forest of Dean and were away to Berry Hill seconds on Saturday.

In a closely fought contest, Cirencester seconds ended the match by going down to defeat by 29-20.

This Saturday the first team are away at Cheltenham Saracens in the Gloucester Premier League.