Emphatic win gives Boars survival hope

In front of a large Finstall Park crowd, the Boars' number seven Nigel Burrows was first to score when he exploited weaknesses on the blind side to run in and touchdown near the posts.

Ben Copson made no mistake with the conversion.

Cheltenham fought back and after a period of stout Bromsgrove defence the home side mounted another attack.

This time a line-out 10 yards out was taken cleanly.

Duncan Roke, making his debut at fly-half, drove forward but was stopped short of the line, but from the ensuing ruck scrum half Nick Copson sold the dummy and went clean through to score a try, which was converted by his brother Ben.

Despite some curious refereeing decisions affecting both sides' performance, Bromsgrove maintained their discipline and concentrated on playing a simple strategy of dominating the forward exchanges.

A classic example of this was, when under considerable pressure deep within their own half, their pack drove a maul almost 40 metres through the middle of the park.

Not only did this relieve pressure but it sapped the strength and resolve of the visitors.

Cheltenham started to lose their composure and gave away penalties for dissent.

Copson was successful with one of the kicks to increase the lead to 17-0.

Cheltenham continued to battle and an excellent break from fly half Matt Dean was stopped just short of the line with some desperate defending.

The visitors came out for the second half with all guns blazing.

Their first maintained attack looked as though it would produce a try but for Lee Wainright's intelligent interception.

Wainwright then kicked and chased down the length of the field.

He almost touched down for a try but instead Bromsgrove were awarded a scrummage five yards out.

The ball went blind to Roke who dummied and went over to score a debut try.

The conversion attempt hit the upright and Bromsgrove led 22-0.

The Boars continued their dominance in the scrum and Rob Merritt produced some excellent throwing to the back of the lineout.

However, Cheltenham were not going to accept defeat easily and they increased the intensity.

There were some heated exchanges including a fracas which saw both sets of forwards pile in.

The referee seemed to be struggling to maintain control and a yellow card was shown to Nigel Burrows, while Dan Ingram was sent off.

But Bromsgrove stayed defensively strong and prevented any breach of their own try line.

The game was finished off beautifully when skipper Richard Arnold took a third phase ball on a large blindside.

He stepped and showed the ball, before baffling the defence and waltzing round them to score a well deserved try.