Keynsham 10pts
Drybrook 13pts
Drybrook came away from Keynsham with the victory to keep their impressive winning run going but were made to work extremely hard right to the end.
A bitterly cold day and two strong defences made this game one for the purists but in all fairness both teams tried to play Rugby but were met with a solid defence each time they attacked.
Keynsham started the better but it wasn’t long before Drybrook were starting to take a grip on the game.
Drybrook enjoyed lots of possession but Keynsham always held firm and Drybrook’s ability to lose the ball at crucial times were the rhythm of the first half.
After 25 minutes all Drybrook had to show for their efforts was a Tom Treherne penalty.
The possession and pressure Drybrook were asserting on Keynsham was starting to show and Mitch Hale thought he had bulldozed his way over the line to score. But the ref was unsighted and the ball was deemed held up, much to the annoyance of the travelling faithful.
To add insult to injury Keynsham cleared there
.
lines and worked their way into good field position and began to assert their own pressure on the Drybrook defence.
With Drybrook defending for their lives Danny Price was sent to the bin after an infringement.
Keynsham kicked to the corner and from the resulting line out a driving maul was finished off by their hooker who emerged from the bottom of the melee. A successful conversion left Drybrook trailing at the break by 7pts to 3pts.
A stiff talking to at half time and Drybrook were on the march again but once again.
The match now turned into an arm wrestle and all both teams to show was an exchange of penalties to make the score 10pts to 6pts.
Drybrook were upping their game and couldn’t quite believe they hadn’t scored after continual pressure but kept losing the ball time and again with the opposing try line at their mercy.
This was summed up when a 4 on 1 was not executed with the ball being taken into contact.
With the clock ticking down more pressure was exerted on the Keynsham line. Eventually a beautiful move out behind lead to Mitch Baldwin
hitting the perfect line to go unopposed under the posts much to the relief of everyone concerned.
The conversion was a formality for Treherne and all Drybrook had to do was see out the last 5 minutes.
Keynsham could smell blood with the score at 10-13 and threw the kitchen sink at Drybrook.
But one thing the Drybrook boys can do is defend and so they did, and with the final whistle sounding Drybrook knew they had got away with one here.
Danny Price stood out with his defence and Glenn Nott had a solid game but Man of the Match went to Mitch Baldwin whose try secured the victory.
Not pretty but a win none the less and a habit of winning is not a bad thing to have in your armoury.
Drive on Dry!
Drybrook: 15.Treherne 14.Moore 13.Howard 12.Large(capt) 11.Gardner 10.Stevenson 9.Baldwin 8.Bourne 7.Price 6.Peaper 5.Nott 4.Greenway 3.Jelf 2.Guest 1.Hale
16.Boon 17.Bourne 18.George
