Tribute Western Counties North.

Cirencester 21, Barton Hill 26.

SOME poor defensive play in the backs division, which presented Barton Hill with three unanswered tries and two conversions, left Cirencester with too much to do.

Town started brightly and led through two early James Fisher penalties.

However, it then all went badly wrong as poor tackling in the centres and out wide prompted coach Dean Hammett to re-organise his side even before half-time.

In the second half, Town slowly clawed their way back into the game.

However, the backs were not having a good day and chances for Tosh and Ramwell went begging due to poor decisions on the last pass.

The forwards kept generating some good ball even though the line-out and scrum was far from solid.

Scrum half Parry started pulling the strings and Town were camped in Barton Hill’s half for long periods.

A small consolation was that Fisher had his kicking boots on and pulled the score back to 18-19 with 15 minutes to go.

But a break out by Barton Hill saw their winger evade three tackles before passing back inside allowing the flanker to gallop under the posts for a seven-pointer.

In reply, a further Fisher penalty closed the gap. However, some poor tactical decisions near the end allowed Barton Hill to seize the ball at the line-out and close the game out.