Drybrook Development Squad: 36pts
Old Centralians 2nds: 33pts
Drybrook kicked off playing towards the club house for thier second league game of the season.
With both teams seemingly evenly matched in strength and speed it was clearly going to be a close game from the start.
New signing Will Revill continued his excellent showing at Lydney when, with Old Cents on the attack, he intercepted a pass in the Drybrook 20m line and ran the full length of the pitch to score the first try of the game. In the swirling wind, scrum half Andrew Milner’s conversion attempt hit the uprights as Drybrook took a 5-0 lead.
Another score came soon after when from a scrum 10 meters out from the home side’s try line the visiting scrum half moved the ball wide and the Old Cents winger crashed over for an unconverted try to even the score at 5-5.
Some poor tacking by Drybrook saw Old Cents score a further 2 tries in quick succession giving them a healthy 5-19 lead.
However the half was not over and the Drybrook
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pack began to assert some dominance up front, carrying hard and deep into Old Cents half. A driving maul was created which allowed Drybrook to powered over the line with Hooker Tom Smith grounding the ball. Andrew Milner added the extras.
With only seconds left on the clock till half time, Will Revill showed his pace again to score his second try of the day, closing the gap to 17-19 to Old Cents at Half Time.
The second half kicked off and within just 3 minutes substitute Craig Moore crossed the line for anotherDrybrook try. Milner, not having the best of days with the boot, converted to give Drybrook the lead.
The game was to be neck and neck for the rest of the half.
Old Cents were not about to throw the towel in and their experienced centres created another converted try to take a 26-24 lead.
Drybrooks Tom smith was next to dot down, scoring his second try giving Drybrook the lead once more, 29-26.
Back came Old cents and once more broke through the drybrook defence to score a converted try and grab the lead 33-29.
Next came the deciding try when Milner popped a short pass to loose head prop Tom Reed who powered through the tiring Old Cents defence. Milner converted making the scoreline 36-33 in Drybrook’s favour.
With Just five minutes left on the clock and Drybrook clinging on to a narrow lead, the home side winger Will Revill found his self in the Sin Bin for pursueing a tackle after the whistle had been blown.
Drybrook came under concerted pressure from the visitors for the remainder of the game, but the 14 men clung on, eventually forcing an error from Old Cents to close the game out and claim there second league win of the season.
Drybrook Development XV: Tom Reed, Tom Smith, Ashley Nelmes , Jon Pritchard, Ben Casey, Joe James, Connor Hale, Ian Morgan, Andrew Milner, Aron Ryder, Will Bailey, Jack Whiting, Blake Smith, Will Revill, Jack Ruddock
Bench: Craig Moore, Dean Large, Luke Harris, Morgan Warnett, Stephen Virgo, James Smith
