On bank holiday Monday Gordano Travelled to South Bristol to play 4th Place Imperial who had called the fixture off twice already but after the heavy night rain the pitch was playable, and the game could finally be played.

Gordano with the short turnaround from their last game, were unsurprisingly slow to start but solid defence on their own try line kept out the direct imperial who had the advantage of the wind and slope in the first half. Gordano warmed up and finally got their hands on the ball and worked the phases well to drive up the field and on the 15th minute Sam Hodge burst clear to score under the post to score his 14th try of the year. Hodge added the conversion. 2 minutes later Hodges centre partner Elliot Handscomb scored another try after collecting a nice little chip through by fly half Rowesell. Hodge again add the extras. Gordano now full of confidence were playing some lovely rugby and soon had their 3rd try, after the ball was moved back and forth between 8 players before winger Toby Baxter was sent through to finish one of the best try’s of the season. With 5 minutes left in the half imperial were down on the Gordano try line again and they were trying to barge they way over, but Gordano weren’t having any of it. Imperial then tried to drive the scrum over the line after bringing on their rotund scrummaging expert, but still they were able to move Gordano but unfortunately the pressure told and their 8 broke quickly and barrage over. On the stroke of half time Gordano got the bonus point try after tom arnall broke blind from the scrum, scrum half Chase Southley moved the ball quickly for Jack Thomas to break through a huge hole and score under the post. HT 7-26.

With the hard work of playing up the slope done Gordano were looking to heap the misery on to the south Bristol side and after 2 mintues of the second half Hodge again broke though to score under the post. 6 minutes later Joe Rowsell chipped through and was in to score but kindly left it to Hodge so he can collect his hat-trick for the day. With only 10 minutes of the 2nd half played Gordano scored there 3rd try of the half as Captain Tom Arnall crashed over and soon after that his back-row partner Stuart Harris scored as well. With replacements coming on and the fatigue of the 2 games in the weekend Gordano didn’t add any further points and imperial got 1 try back but the game was dead and buried by that point. Full time 12-52.

This was a fantastic performance by the squad who play excellent rugby even though the pitch was wet, and the opposition were lumpy but to score 50 points against the 4th team in the league after 55 minutes shows how far this team has come. The Richwood Construction man of the match must be hat-trick hero Sam Hodge. That result has moved Gordano back to the top of Somerset Premier