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This was a tough, forward orientated match. It was ultimatly decided by

Pershores dominance in the set piece. The lineout, was efficient, and

varied, but it was at the scrum that Pershore overwhelmed Cheltenham.

The front row of Alex Peel, Ben Humphries, and skipper Karl Evans, gave

their opposite numbers a torrid afternoon. With this ascendency in the

scrum, even on their own ball, Cheltenham had little quality ball to

work with. Pershore got off to a good start, forcing Cheltenham onto the

back foot, with their big ball carriers running straight and hard.

Eventually after the ball was recycled through several phases, Martin

Hope burst down the wing, his grubber kick was gathered by Andy

Jenkinson who crashed over. The difficult conversion was missed. A

purple patch followed with Pershore camped in Norths 22 for twenty

minutes, however a combination of the wrong decisions being made,

handling errors, and a resolute Cheltenham defence, meant that the

scoreboard was not effected. With the half time approaching, and totally

against the run of play, Cheltenhams first visit to the Pershore 22 was

rewarded when fast hands down the blindside of a ruck, saw their winger

Timms touch down. The diddicult conversion fron wide out, was converted

by Jones. The second half mirrored the first, Pershore dominating the

quality possession, but guilty of running back into their big forwards,

or trying to run through their aggressive midfield. With hindsight, if

Pershore had played with more width, they could have scored more points.

With the scrum forcing Cheltenham to concede penalties, eventually

Pershore converted one through Woodhouse, to take a narrow lead. The

final ten minutes saw Cheltenham attack Pershore from all parts of the

pitch, but Pershore defended very well, and held out for a deserved win.