Cinderford (Away)

Cinderford 1st XV 32 vs. Chinnor 1st XV 7
National League 3 South
Saturday 16th September 2006

Chinnor had yet to register a win against Cinderford, so the game at Dockham Road was never going to be other than extremely challenging, and so it proved to be. As early as the 1st minute Cinderford opened the scoring when Tristan Roberts, one of 5 Hartbury College players in the team and a Bristol Academy player to boot, broke through the middle to put Lee Douglas in for a try under the posts. Roberts , who was destined to be a thorn in Chinnor's side for the whole game, added the conversion and then kicked two massive penalties to put Cinderford 13 pts in front in as many minutes. Another break by Roberts put Douglas in at the corner, and with his third successful kick extended Cinderford's lead to 20 pts at the interval. In between this one man show, Chinnor went close on several occasions. Richard Williams was off song with two kickable penalties whilst Richard Grimsdell spilled the ball when he was over the line so the score could well have been much closer at the half way stage.

With Grimsdell again going very close at the start of the second half Chinnor took the game to their opponents, and looked the most likely of the two sides to be first on the score sheet. However it was Roberts once again who squirmed his way though the Chinnor defence to score a fine individual try near the corner flag. He then had the audacity to add the conversion. With Chris Jones, the Cinderford No.5 sin binned for a professional foul, Chinnor again attacked and were finally rewarded when they created an overlap for Anthony Pyers to score with Williams converting. With Chinnor reduced to 14 , via a Hennessy sin binning Cinderford scored their final try when Roberts, who else, darted his way through the Chinnor defence and outpaced their cover to go over for another spectacular try. He had the good grace to miss the conversion. Another Cinderford sin binning in the latter stages gave Chinnor the opportunity to add to their score as they camped on the Cinderford line in the final minutes. However some strange decision taking and a resolute defence kept them at bay.

Although soundly beaten by a well drilled and aggressive outfit, Chinnor should still have come away with a bonus point by virtue of the two tries they squandered along with the opportunities they had in the final minutes. his level of Rugby is hard and uncompromising as Chinnor found out on Saturday. On the positive side Ben Hewitt made a classy debut at full back with Matt Hutchins and Joseph Iosefo the pick of the forwards.

 

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