Cullompton opened their campaign with a competent display against a Thornbury side who offered some resistance at scrum time in true Gloucester tradition but were unable to compete in broken play. The home side gave debuts to five players and there were concerns that not enough playing time together had been achieved to produce a cohesive performance. Thoughts that proved unfounded as the game progressed . Two debutants Dan Heywood and Oli Kittow controlled the lineout throughout and allied to accurate throwing from new hooker Dan Driscoll they provided scrum half Tom Frankpitt with quality ball for the threequarters to launch a number of attacks. After five minutes play centre Ross Toms made a midfield break and quick ball from the ensuing maul came to skipper and full back Adam Pearce who joined the line and cut through to score at the posts. Toms completed a simple conversion. The visitors pack was slowing play at every opportunity and the Cully game plan was to move any possession they gained to their backs and stretch the defence. Josh Mammola took the scrum ball gained down the blind side and when prop Andy Isaacs was illegally stopped Toms stepped up to add the penalty points and give the home side a ten point advantage. From the kick off further pressure through a short side move nearly resulted in a second try but stout defence kept Cully out when they were held up over the line. The visitors changed their tactics after twenty minutes play and opened up with some threequarter play but their backs looked ring rusty and handling errors in the wet conditions let them down.T he scrum, aided by some strange interpretations of the new laws by referee Box, was putting pressure on the Cully eight however and two penalties for the visitors were missed by kicker Tim Stephens. Cully replied with a fine crossfield kick from fly half Alex Brooks which just eluded winger Marcus Busch who, had he fielded it, was sure to score.
The second half started with the Cully pack employing the rolling maul to good effect and when Thornbury were penalised Ross Toms again added the penalty points. Coach Chris Wall emptied the Cully bench and Thornbury, under pressure both for territory and possession, lost a player to the sin bin and after Toms had missed the penalty play went into the Cully twenty two. Jeremy Turner, on as replacement flanker for Cully, made a fine tackle and dispossessed his opposite number. Harshly referee Box declared the tackle illegal and Tim Stephens final opened the Thornbury account with the penalty. In the final minutes Turner made amends however with a break through centre field which took play deep into the visitors half. When stopped in the tackle alert play from Frankpitt and Brooks saw the ball quickly moved out for Pearce to join the line and score his second try . The final kick of the game was a superb conversion for the touchline from Toms.
A solid opening effort from the Cullompton team which despite the large number of new players gelled well and with the quality ball achieved from the pack supporters will be looking for the backs to provide some attractive free scoring rugby from the coming seasons fixtures.

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