Gordano 17 - Winscombe 10

Gordano welcomed Winscombe RFC to Caswell lane in the last match of the first half of the season. The wet weather had blown clear and the sun was out for the top two teams in the league to fight it out for the first time this season.

It was the visitors who started stronger with a clean break from their 12 taking play in to the Gordano 22 where he was finally brought time by Josh Richards. Several plays later and Gordano were caught offside in front of the posts and found themselves 3 points down. Gordano were making good ground through the forwards, one driving maul marched Winscombe 30 metres before a loss of control let the visitors off. Another promising maul, initiated from a line out was deliberately collapsed with the offending player remaining on the wrong side - when the Gordano pack attempted to remove him by the only means available to them the Winscombe forwards reacted and a few punches were exchanged. The referees decision was to reverse the initial penalty which allowed Winscombe to clear their line. This was a momentary relief as Gordano were soon back in the Winscombe 22 several short sided attacks made gradual progress before the ball was moved to Chris Worgan who evaded the first tackle before drawing the fullback and putting Tom Arnall in under the posts, ~Rowsell adding the conversion. Both teams continued to slog it out for the next 10 minutes moving the ball when they had the opportunity but very few tackles were missed, it was as a result of one of these midfield collisions that Gordano lost outside centre and leading try scorer Owen Abbott to a fractured cheek bone, replacing him with Joe Harris for his first game of the season. Joe Rowsell rested up the last 10 minutes of the half after seeing yellow for a tip tackle in a defensive ruck.The score remained at 7-3 until half time.

The second half continued in a similar vein to the first with both teams keeping the ball fairly tight and defences staying on top. 10 minutes into the half the referee followed through with his half time threat of binning more players as Lee Worgan received a harsh yellow for use of the boot at the breakdown. Gordano weathered their second stint with 14 players admirably and stretched their lead to 7 with a penalty in front of the posts. Winscombe started to bring their backs into the game a little more and a well worked move put their blindside winger through a gap and he had the pace to finish it off - a well struck conversion levelled the scores at 10 a piece. Winscombe felt they were now in the ascendancy but were shocked as Gordano immediately retook the lead after Tom Arnall ran a lovely line between two front row players and put Lee Worgan away under the points for a seven pointer. This proved to be the final score of the game - great defence from replacement Mike Yandell, captain Fred Young and Carl Petch kept the Winscombe attacks at bay and tireless offensive work from Tim Statton and second row Marcus Stratton who wound back the clock to put in another fine performance.

This had been built as a huge game and all players involved stood up to the task showing great skill and heart to get the win and complete the clean sweep.