Ross clinched a victory on Saturday, January 25th with a late penalty that closed a hard fought nailbiter of a game in front of a large crowd. They won 17-15 against Berry Hill.

This was a typical local derby, with every yard being hard earned and with both defences ferocious in their tackling. There was very little space and time on the ball for much of the game.

Berry Hill were the first to show but they missed a relatively straight forward penalty to take an early lead, and this was punished by Ross at the end of the first quarter as they opened the scoring.

A dominant scrum by Ross set up a ruck on the five yard line, and with the visitor pack in retreat, prop Louis Morgan pounced on the lose ball and crashed through the defence to score.

Thai Hayward nailed a beautiful conversion and Ross were 7-0 ahead, but it was always going to be a hard fought close encounter. From a penalty on the Ross twenty two, Berry Hill pegged Ross back to 7-3, which remained into the half-time break.

The ferocity of the tackling and ball carrying did not relent after the break, but it was Ross that forced the next score after some strong running from Casey Morgan and Josh Element, which put Chris Price free as he crashed over to score once again.Thai added the two points and Ross were 14-3 ahead.

With only minutes to go it seemed as if the visitors had snatched victory with added tries, however, Ross calmly regained possession after the kick off. After a number of rucks, and with only a couple of minutes left on the clock, the visitors infringed and Ross had a penalty 40 yards out. Thai Hayward stepped up and calmly sent the ball between the uprights and Ross celebrated a hard fought win which took them upto seventh in the Glos Premier League table.

Ross are back at home on Saturday, February 1st for a 2.30pm kick off.See the full story in this week’s edition of the Ross Gazette, or subscribe to our online edition here