Cotham Park RFC The closest Rugby club to Clifton in Bristol

A chilly winter’s day on the 1XV pitch at Coombe Dingle was the setting for the game for the two newly promoted teams in Gloucester 2. Cotham Park and St Brendan’s have had an excellent start to the season which has seen them both race to the top of the table where they currently occupy spaces two and three in the league standings. With St Brendan’s narrowly winning both fixtures last year, Cotham were looking for revenge.

The game began and Cotham were instantly on the attack; the backs stretching their opposition and finding some success on the wings. A series of neat plays and constant pressure in the Brendan’s 22 saw the ball shipped to the wing where Julian Hofflin was on hand for the try, a special note has to go to lock George Walker who dispelled the rumour that forwards are nothing but handless mud-monkeys as he threw an excellent miss pass to set Julian away. With the teams evenly matched in both skill and physicality it was key to make a good start, which Cotham had done with some aplomb. A searing run from the Banahan esque winger Tom Aspinwall saw him carve through some would-be tacklers and a neat off load to Dom Carroll led to the second try. With Brendan’s clearly shocked by the start and only a converted penalty on the scoreboard, they slowly came back into the game thanks mainly to the excellent boot of the number 10, his kicks pinned Cotham back into their 22 where they set up camp. This pressure finally told and a driving maul proved to be Cotham’s undoing, with the Brendan’s pack crashing over to score. The first half ended 12-8 to Cotham.

The second half began in much the same way as the first had ended, with the Brendan’s pack putting more and more pressure onto the Cotham forwards. Again the Brendan’s 10 kicked them deep into opposition territory. From the ensuing lineout the ball was spilled loose on the Cotham side and their lock sprinted through to pick up the bouncing ball, he picked it up cleanly and was able to sprint clear to the line for the try. This gave Brendan’s the lead 13-12. After some enforced substitutions had left the Cotham team reeling, the new look team began to gel and come back into the game. Cotham moved back up the pitch and came close to scoring in the corner where prop/hooker John Cresswell was tackled just short. From the resulting breakdown the ball was moved quickly out to captain Craig Coulstring who crashed over to score under the posts. With the conversion scored by Nick Comer the score was now 19-13 with around 5 minutes to go. The play moved quickly into the Cotham half from the kick off and this was to be the scene for the closing minutes of the game. Some minor indiscretions from the Cotham pack were dealt with harshly by the referee and the penalty count began to rise, the Brendan’s 10 taking full advantage as he slotted over a penalty to bring the scores to within 3. With 30 seconds to go Cotham lock George Walker got trapped under a collapsed maul on the 5 metre line and sadly dislocated his knee. With only seconds to go and some confusion over the score St Brendan’s chose to kick for the corner. Having lost George who had been imperious in the air, Cotham were worried. Brendan’s won the lineout and moved the ball in field, where at the tackle situation on the Cotham 22 the referee judged the defender had not released the man and Brendan’s had a penalty bang in front. Their 10 slotted the kick home with the last play of the game to tie the scores 19 a piece. A draw was a fair result and showed the closeness between the two teams, although Cotham will again feel that the high penalty count was their undoing.

It has been said that some of the humour has gone from my match reports, this probably is the case, but it is hard to look back on these matches too fondly when the same mistakes are proving to be our undoing. Two more yellow cards and stacks of penalties have again conspired against us; I just hope that the New Year brings with it new vigour and determination and we can really push on for promotion. Anyway, one more league match this year gents, a lovely pre-Christmas ‘ding dong’ against Tredworth. See you at training!

Stringer

Tries

Julian Hofflin

Dom Carroll

Craig Coulstring

Conversions

Nick Comer (2)