Year Summary 2005
Cinderford set the pace in SW 1 leading the league from early September.
It was soon evident that the Championship stakes would be a three horse race and the foresters gave themselves a massive confidence boost coming back from a 3pts-20 half time deficit to beat rivals Bridgwater and Albion by 36pts-20.
We entered the mid-season break in buoyant mood but in early January Clifton brought us down to earth by winning 6pts-7 here at Dockham Road. However the boys bounced back and strung together a series of successes until Bridgwater brought us up short with a 52pts-5 thrashing in mid February. Nevertheless Cinderford soldiered on and then produced their best rugby of the season to beat a confident Maidenhead by 5pts- 62 at Braywick Park.
A disappointing 16pts-17 home defeat to Morley in the Intermediate Cup semi-final was forgotten when Cinderford secured the league title with a 5pts-83 victory at Gloucester Old Boys. However defeat followed in the final of the Gloucestershire County Cup at Kingsholm where neighbours Lydney won an all `Forest' final by 30pts-14.
Cinderford played their last game of the season, a 34pts-14 victory over Cheltenham, without crowd pleasing Samoan favourites Tupe Fanolua and Ronnie Patea who had left for warmer climes. Fanolua and Patea were the catalyst which turned a competent Cinderford side into a table topping team. Fanolua varied play intelligently from outside-half for most of the year while the enigmatic Patea proved to be a force of nature and scored thirty three tries in all matches to equal the club record.
Young full-back Danny Trigg scored a record 455 pts in all games; a testament both to his skill and the hard work of the rest of the side. Cinderford, who introduced a string of young players as the season progressed, were well served by their Captain and number-eight Rob James who led by example.
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