Cricklade hosted Westbury for a place in the Plate final in what proved to be a tough encounter.
There was not much to choose between the teams with the game ebbing and flowing from end to end, until after 30 minutes Cricklade opened the scoring with a penalty when a Westbury player held on to the ball after being tackled.
At the restart the visitors immediately went on the attack, and the forwards set up a driving maul and carried the ball up to Cricklade’s 22 metre line.
The ball was released to the backs and with good handling skills they shipped the ball to stand off Aaron Vaughan, who had cleverly looped to the wing and was able to touch down in the corner. The conversion was missed. There was no more addition to the scoreboard and the first half finished 3-5 to Westbury.
The second half started at a frenetic pace, with both sides playing good rugby; it was again Cricklade who scored first with a penalty. Almost straight away standoff Vaughan slotted a penalty of his own to snatch the lead back for the visitors. 6 – 8 to Westbury with 10 minutes of normal time left.
The final try came on the 40 minute mark when Westbury’s forwards moved the ball up field in a series of rucks and rolling mauls, for scrum half Nigel Kershaw to dive over the try line to score. The conversion was again missed. With 5 minutes of added time left, Westbury had to repel a series of sustained attacks by the determined Cricklade side but they hung on to their lead and at the final whistle the score remained at 6-13 to the visitors.
Westbury were good value for their 2 tries and the win but Cricklade would be a little disappointed with some of the missed opportunities to score.
Westbury coach, Chris Bush, and Captain, Nigel Kershaw, were both pleased with the all-round effort put in by both the starting 15 and the replacements. Westbury will now face Calne in the Plate final on 12th November.
