A WOULD-be burgler fled a Forest house after being confronted by former rugby international Ceri Large.

The incident in the early hours of Saturday morning (November 18) at Church Road in Cinderford was captured on CCTV and the England international is hoping somebody can identify the intruder and his accomplice.

Ceri had mates from Drybrook Rugby Club – where she started her career – over to watch Children in Need but she was woken in the early hours by the sound of footsteps to find the intruder standing in her bedroom doorway.

When she gave chase, he was so keen to get away that his trousers fell down and he was last seen running down the street in his boxer shorts.

Writing on her Facebook page, Ceri said: “In the early hours

of Saturday morning, 2:20am, two vile humans attempted to rob my house when mum and dad were away.

“I woke up to one of them stood in my bedroom doorway, luckily I managed to chase him out of the house and down the garden without him taking anything.”

She added: “I was in pitch black so I just switched on my phone light in his face and screamed: ‘There’s a man in the house’ at the top of my voice.

“My friends said afterwards they had never heard anything like it.

Ceri added: “He just scarpered. He must have been scared because he jumped from the top of the stairs to the bottom and broke the bottom step.

“It’s a shame he didn’t go right through and get stuck.

“I chased him out and my friend was just behind, but we decided not to follow when he jumped over a six foot gate and ran off.”

Ceri’s parents were able to access CCTV footage when they returned the following day from the Isle of Wight but Ceri said the incident was “frightening and upsetting”.

Ceri described the man in her house as having dark, scruffy hair and a goatie beard and moustache, and the accomplice as wearing a grey hoodie and a flat cap.

CCTV footage shows them coming along Church Road from the direction of the town centre towards St White’s Road and Ceri is hoping there is other film that may help identify the burglars.

Anyone with information should call Gloucestershire Police on 101 or e-mail [email protected] quoting incident 45 of November 18.