Winscombe conceded a late try to Gordano as the visitors drew level with the conversion.

Winscombe 10 pts

Gordano 10 pts

WINSCOMBE opened the scoring with a penalty after a minute in this drawn match against Gordano.

Gordano nearly scored with a breakaway, but it took excellent cover by Lewis Podpadec to prevent an early try. Shortly afterwards, it took desperate defence by Aaron Ford to halt another attack.

After these early scares, Winscombe took control of the game with their forwards dominating the scrummages, edging the line-outs and retaining possession through many phases, but were let down by conceding penalties at the breakdown.

Throughout this period, and indeed the whole game, Winscombe’s midfield defence of Owen Howell, James Flower and James Rutherford was so tight that Gordano kicked a high percentage of their possession, but it was usually dealt with by Steve Pugh, who had another excellent game in defence.

On 27 minutes, after driving play by Will Thomas, Matt Truscott, Dan Fryer and Simon Thompson led to a high tackle, Warren took the line-out and from the maul Podpadec made an incisive break down the touchline.

Thomas was in support and when tackled near the line gave a superb offload to Ford who dived over for a try. Pugh converted from wide out.

Winscombe started the second half with a determined chase and were awarded a penalty, which was converted. The home side were reduced to 14 men, but even with a man down, they were superior in the set pieces.

In the final ten minutes the game suddenly started to drift away from them as they lost their first throw-in of the half and Gordano had their first three stable scrummages of the game.

Worst of all, they conceded a run of six penalties at the breakdown and from the quickly taken final one, Gordano’s powerful second row crashed over wide out. The conversion just crept inside the post to tie the match.