Powergen Intermediate Cup
Drybrook 15, Keynsham 18
BY Monday morning Drybrook captain Neil Morgan was sporting enough to admit the referee had called it as he saw it ... the try which beat his team in the eighth minute of injury time at Mannings Road.
"He was unsighted. The ball was at the bottom of a mass of players and he actually asked people to move before he award the try. He said to me afterwards that if he had to referee the same situation again his decision might be different.
"But its water under the bridge now. He called it as he saw it at the time and we were just beaten, but I thought it was a great team effort and a game we could have won," he said.
The reality is Drybrook had not scored heavily enough.
Chances were missed, including a couple of penalty shots and a try or two as passes went to ground.
"You can't make mistakes like that against a team who play three leagues above you. They will punish errors and that is just what happened to us," he said.
Morgan said he was proud of the way his team had played.
"It was a big team effort because it had to be. We usually name a man-of-the-match but we didn't do that on Saturday as everyone had played well," he said.
Drybrook will now concentrate their resources into an assault on the Gloucestershire Premier League title.
"We are won all our games and are two points clear, but we can't afford to relax.
"If we play as we did against Keynsham we should win our next game by 40 points, but it's not like that. There's a tendency to relax," said Morgan.
He sees the next two games – away to North Bristol and home to Longlevens – as crucial.
"They are midtable teams and games we should comfortably win. But we will want to be at our best and wrap up two big wins to take us into the Christmas break," he said.
Drybrook's points came from three penalty goals and two drop goals kicked by fly-half Neil Merrett.