Keynsham fall just short at Thornbury

Thornbury RFC   10 - 7   Keynsham RFC 
Those of us who chose to stand outside in the dreary, overcast weather instead of being in the warmth of the bar watching England wallop the Wallabies, were treated to an absolute gem of a match. Two youngish, mainly home-grown, sides offered up a pulsating game from start to finish. 

There was everything on show, speed, skill, power, attack and defence with very little to choose between the teams. No-one minded that it was scoreless until a minute before half-time, such was the excitement. A try was Keynsham’s reward for having had the slight advantage of both slope and wind and came after a neat bit of juggling by Jack Weston who then fed Cieran Chester to force his way over near the right corner flag. Ollie Conybeare slotted a fine conversion. We thought that would herald the half time whistle, but not so and from the kick-off the visitors were immediately back close to the Thornbury line. After a series of pick and drives Keynsham thought they’d scored a second try, but the ref decided that the ball had been held up, awarded a scrum 5 and blew for half time. 

Play continued to be fast and exciting in the second half again, with emphasis on the slope the greater portions of action were within 30 meters or so of the visitors’ line. Keynsham did make some telling forays into home territory and with 15 minutes left on the clock, were camped on Thorns line. Surge after surge occurred and still the defence held and eventually after 10/12 phases the Black and Ambers (playing in red away kit!) went wide towards the left. Oh dear, oh dear. Thorns fly-half, Sam Poustie, intercepted a floated pass and was free to sprint 60metres before being tackled by Joe Davis, but it was a 2 on 1 and the supporting Rich Bennett accepted the pass to run in under the posts, Jake Wood converting to make it 7 apiece. After the restart, they again exerted pressure on the Keynsham line, who did manage to get up-field on occasion but a fine run by the ever-dangerous Dan Hussey on the wing almost caught them out.

In the dying seconds Keynsham’s defence was driving them back but from a scrappy retreating maul the ball went into the hands of Poustie whose snap-shot drop-kick crept over. Not a peach of a kick by any means, more of a shrivelled sultana, but it turned out to be a golden pearl for the Thorns who got their 4-point win and cost the visitors the draw they probable deserved. No restart – game over. 

Keynsham did miss 2 kickable penalties in the first half by Conybeare, standing in as kicker for Sam Challenger, who, it is believed, bruised his foot during a line-dancing session during the week; he made up with the fine conversion! There were line breaks for Jack Evans, Sam, Dan Moody and Cieran and skipper Weston appeared everywhere to good effect. Everyone put in a great shift and contributed to a fine game but once again there was very little reward in the way of league points and our occasional failure to take the correct option proved costly. Thornbury showed us how to secure points in the dying minutes. 
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Onwards to Launceston, lads.