Westcombe pushed to the limit by feisty Cinderford

Cinderford had suffered a poor start to the season losing six of their eight games so far but their spirited performance saw them win a much-needed bonus point.

For 20 minutes each side of half-time Westcombe played the sort of rugby which was enough to see off their near neighbours Lydney both last season and this.

But Cinderford had as much of the game and gave the hosts much discomfort as they threatened several times to close the huge gap Westcombe had created.

The hosts started brightly and exerted all the early pressure but as the first quarter came to an end Cinderford led 3-5.

Sam Barnett's penalty had given Westcombe the lead but from the restart the visitors fought back.

They pressurised Combe's 22-yard line although their running off the ball was causing the Combe defence few problems.

Out of the blue Cinderford's mercurial scrum-half Dan Griffths exploited a maul and scored his first try for the club.

It was the scare Combe needed and they gathered themselves to score 29 unanswered points in 18 minutes' play.

The first try, converted by Barnett, fell to Chris Lewis on the blind side.

Two minutes later Ian Hardcastle virtually destroyed the Cinderford defence single-handedly before close support from full-back James Wiseman set up centre Richard Stenhouse to score.

Hardcastle scored his second of the day after a punt upfield caused panic in the Cinderford defence and a sweeping move ended with the try.

Barnett capped a fine display with a great individual effort going over in the corner and then converted his own try so the hosts led 27-5 at half-time.

Three minutes into the second half Combe hooker Joe Bonner put the icing on another solid performace with a try which extended their lead to 32 points.

Rather than become demoralised Cinderford fought back and quite suddenly Griffiths peeled off the back of a scrum and went the long way round to cross at the corner but close on the posts to give Dan Trigg an easy kick.

It was another 20 minutes before Cinderford scored again and prop Nigel Matthews did the damage after they had the better of the exchanges.

The game was heading for a tense finale until, with 10 minutes remaining, Combe's Tom Hayman went over for his side's sixth and decisive try.

However Cinderford were not going home empty handed and Isaiah Young's try secured his team the bonus point.

Cinderford's Trigg, Griffths and skipper Mark Nicholls all had outstanding games for the visitors.

Combe will feel pleased with any result which includes six tries and the emergence of some new faces among the halfbacks looks good for the future.

Westcombe Park now sit eighth in national league three and face a tough trip to second-placed Cambridge this weekend.

Westcombe: Wiseman; Lewis; Barnett; Stenhouse; Mitchell; Crouch; Marhsall; McKinnell; Bonner (Martyr, 49); Eksteen (Denton, 71); Chitty; Harriss; Hardcastle; Milloy (Calitz, 57), Hayman.