SSE National League One

Cinderford 27

Wharfedale 17

A DEPLETED Wharfedale side travelled to Cinderford and, although they put up a spirited performance, they came away empty handed.

After the early exchanges of solid scrums and good positional kicking, Wharfedale were awarded a penalty in the seventh minute, which Tom Davidson converted.

Cinderford responded almost immediately and, from a line-out, moved the ball quickly through the backs for Lloyd Evans to step inside his man to touch down.

Wharfedale then lost the ball on their line-out and, from the resulting scrum, the ball was recycled to second row Lance Randall, who forced his way over, with Evans adding the conversion.

Cinderford were now enjoying the majority of possession and got their just rewards when Evans scored a smart try, wrong-footing the defence to score under the posts and adding the extras.

However, Wharfedale came back strongly as half-time approached, missing a penalty opportunity, but the home defence held firm and the score remained 19-3 at the interval.

The first quarter of the second half was scoreless, with the visitors playing with more purpose and tempo. Then, in the 63rd minute, Alex Powell was driven over from a five-metre line-out for a well-worked try, which Davidson converted from the far touchline, and replacement hooker Dave Wheeler was sin-binned for a technical offence.

Cinderford, down to 14 men, were quick to respond though when prop Jake Caulfield stole through on Wharfedale's line-out to claim his side's fourth try.

In the final ten minutes, the visitors threw caution to the wind and looked to have claimed something from the match when prop Joe Altham scored a try in the closing minutes, which Lloyd Davies converted.

However, in the dying seconds of the game, Wharfedale conceded a penalty which was converted by Davies, denying the visitors a losing bonus point.