ON a day better suited to camel racing than playing rugby, Drybrook made the trip to Thornbury and came away with plenty to work on before their next encounter, writes Chris Tingle.

Drybrook had first use of the considerable slope but failed to bring any real dynamism to their play. 

It was the home team who applied the early pressure and on 20 minutes they rumbled over the line for an opening converted try.

Drybrook showed glimpses of the play they are capable of, but on to many occasions lacked the consistency to make these pay.

They did score three penalties to take the lead but on the stroke of half time Thornbury kicked a penalty of their own to take a 10-9 lead into the break.

The one area where Drybrook did have control was at the scrum, but to their consternation the ref seemed to have no idea of the scrummage laws and found a whole host of reasons to penalise the side driving their opponents backwards.

The second half began and whether you wish to blame the heat, the frustration at the decisions or playing up the hill the truth is that Drybrook lacked any real intensity and gave away too many easy scores. 

With thirty minutes of the half played the home team had built up a commanding 25-9 lead and the visitors literally had a mountain to climb if they were to get anything from the game.

At last, the Drybrook team seemed to wake up and Luke Roberts who was having a strong game on the wing scored a well-deserved try converted by Sonny Greenman. 

Any hopes of a late comeback were dashed though as from the kick-off Thornbury gained control of the ball and scored to take their tally to 30 points.

Drybrook did gain a consolation score through Mitch Hale, but in their hearts they know that this performance did not do them justice.

There will be plenty to work on this week in training and hopefully we will be firing on all cylinders for our next match at home against Trowbridge.