Gloucestershire 1XV v Southampton 1XV

UGRFC kept their league promotion hopes alive with a win against Southampton in their first game of the new year. 

Three tries before half time and two of which from centre Miles Fletcher helped the boys to hold off against the Southampton side that beat them earlier in the season. 

Gloucestershire were dominant throughout the game and held their lead throughout the match, with Southampton struggling to match Gloucestershire’s work rate.  

UGRFC opened the scoring with a penalty kick and soon added to the score when Miles Fletcher got a brace of tries within 10 minutes.

UGRFC worked hard in attack and put pressure on Southampton to give away penalties. Gloucestershire’s pack worked well to gain some valuable meters and to break down the Southampton defence before James Clarke ran in the boys in blue’s third try of the afternoon with the conversion extending UGRFC’s lead to 20-0. 

Southampton found some momentum late in the first half and after their attacking scrum close to the UGRFC line they got their first try of the game. The successful conversion brought the half-time score to 20-7. 

Gloucestershire got their try bonus point soon into the second half after some beautiful play from the forwards with a pick and go from the back of the scrum. 

UGRFC carried their momentum through to the re-start and quickly scored again when Miles Fletcher got his hat-trick of the afternoon, extending the lead to 34-7 with the successful conversion.

Southampton tried to close the lead for the remainder of the half and scored three consecutive tries in quick succession in which they scored their bonus point try. 

Nevertheless, UGRFC’s early lead prevailed to get them another vital win in the league by 34 to 24, bringing them one step closer to promotion for next season and now two points away from winning the league.