County Cup

Avonmouth 29

Stroud 25

With the remnants of Storm Callum dominating the weather it was obvious that playing conditions would have a telling effect on this Gloucestershire Cup game at Avonmouth, writes Russ Hillier.

Stroud, having absorbed early attacks from the hosts, then replied with complete mastery taking them through to half-time with Regan Herbert bustling his way over from a maul with only six minutes on the clock.

Within a further five minutes and the Stroud pack dominating, some fine inter play between forwards and backs saw Pete Sykes ultimately cross in the far corner, both conversions failing against the strong wind.

A superb break from Dan Gordon, again saw some fine handling to enable Kurtis Herbert to brush off three tackles to score under the posts and follow up by kicking the conversion himself and furthermore a few minutes later adding a penalty. Stroud were now consistently on the attack which bought a further score with Phil Middlemiss touching down for a further try to register the score of 0 points/25 points to Stroud at the Half Time whistle.

Avonmouth’s mid-term team talk obviously was spot on as the second half saw a gradual complete reversal of their fortunes and with their goal kicker making excellent use of the wind it brought the score to 22 points to 25 points with five minutes to go. Having Stroud on the back-foot the hosts then completed the score with a decisive try and conversion to register the end score 29 points to 25 points in favour of Avonmouth right on the final whistle, leaving Stroud to rue not finalising one of the limited chances that came their way during the second period.