Local derbies are always tight affairs and for seventy minutes on Saturday the result hung in the balance. However Ross managed to pull away in the final ten to deliver a hard earned league victory over Westbury.

The home side used their formidable scrimmage for the first quarter, camping themselves on the Ross five yard line for what seemed like an age. Scrum after scrum went by with Ross managing to keep them at bay, however Westbury eventually crawled over the line to open the scoring, giving them a 5-0 lead.

Ross hit back immediately. Some strong carrying around the rucks by Matt Redman, Ben Chapman and Wayne Williams put them deep in the Westbury 22, Ross dummied to go wide and as the defence spread a combination of Gavin Oates and Jake Christopher drove through the middle of the Westbury cover to score. Dan Field missed the conversion, but two late penalties put Ross 11-5 ahead at half time.Westbury hit back hard in the third quarter, buoyed by some slack Ross play they established territory in the Ross half and Ross compounded this by offering up a series of penalties that were successfully converted and Wesbury found themselves 14-11 ahead entering the final quarter.

The result could have gone either way, but the senior players dug deep, and Ross used their possession intelligently, moving the ball away from the committed home pack. The more Ross moved the ball the more difficult it was for the home defence to organise and in the last fifteen minutes Ross added four well orchestrated tries. Firstly centre Dan Field danced through the defence to score, converting his own try. Then Eddie Ruck and Ollie Floyd finished off some great handling by scoring in the right hand corner, and then finally after some superb handling deep in their own half Ross set winger Craig Smith into space and he outpaced the defence to run in a 70 yard final score to give Ross a 37-14 victory.

This victory was built on an heroic rear action scrimmaging first half performance by the Ross tight five. This tired out Westbury's forwards which opened the door later in the game for Ross to move the ball and exploit the space which although belatedly, they did with great precision in the last ten minutes.

On that basis the Hagesud Bosse man of the match goes to the Ross front five of Matt Redman, Craig Boughton,Sam Chappell, Jake Christopher and Wayne Williams.

Next Saturday both Ross 1sts and 2nds are in league action. Seconds away to Redditch a 2.30pm kick off, and the 1sts are home to Glos Spartansin a 2.30pm kick.

For more stories in full please see this week's Ross Gazette.