Sherborne Mini Colts A 19 Cheltenham 19

Tries: Will R, Cosmo P, Hugo DM Conversions Beau B 2

This was a game we approached with some trepidation as Cheltenham had beaten Wellington and Millfield in their last two games, while we had come off the back of three straight defeats and were playing away.

The coach journey had obviously not left our legs in the first half as we spent most of it on the back foot. Our defence was better than last week’s porous performance, but we tended to watch the ball rather than the space and conceded two tries both converted. The second half was a different story. Aided by the wind and a slight slope we tore into Cheltenham and after a great run by Hugo DM cutting back against the grain, Will R smashed over and Beau converted. By this stage Rory RT and Felix T were beginning to make holes in the Cheltenham defence and confidence was growing. Cosmo P then performed a retro version of the timewarp, stepping to the left then right before realising Cheltenham had bought both his dummies and sprinting in from the 22. A missed conversion meant we still had to score again to lead and this duly came from another strong run from Hugo, after we had kept the ball for long enough to edge our way into the Cheltenham 22. Cheltenham then rediscovered their mojo and put huge amounts of pressure on our line, aided by a string of penalties. Had it not been for a fine two man tackle on their academy orc, we would have conceded in front of the posts; as it was they scored with the last play of the game out wide to level, but the kick to win fell agonisingly short for Cheltenham, perhaps deservedly short for us, as we showed enough spirit to claim a win and a loss would have been unmerited.

This was an important game for us as we played with real team spirit and began to put in place some of the aspects of game management and teamwork that we have been working on.