Rosslyn Park (Home)

Another game where Chinnor pressed the self-destruct button to give away points unnecessarily. This was perfectly illustrated just 70 seconds into the game. Electing to play against the wind, Chinnor fielded the Rosslyn Park kick-off deep in their 22. Endeavouring to run the ball out of the 22, they failed to keep the ball in hand, spilled it, allowing Park to  whip the gift ball away for left wing Niall Lear to go over in the corner. A touchline conversion from Richard Anthony rubbed salt into this early wound. A penalty from Anthony 3 minutes later did not help matters and when Richard Jackson came in from full-back to go over under the posts in the 8th minute Chinnor were 17 points adrift and facing an uphill battle. They did come back when Beets charged down an attempted clearance by Anthony and scored near the touchline. This signalled a period of intense pressure from Chinnor but unfortunately poor option taking where they failed to move the ball wide cost them dear. Failing to retain the ball beneath the posts gave Park the opportunity to clear and within seconds Chinnor were standing behind their posts awaiting the inevitable successful conversion instead of standing on the half-way awaiting their own. This was one of the critical moments in the game as instead of being just 5 points behind with the wind in their favour with the second half looming it was suddenly 19 points adrift and a mountain to climb. Another penalty from the boot of Anthony gave Park even more breathing space but another period of Chinnor pressure was rewarded by a try from Winpenny, converted by Williams. This came on the half-time whistle with Chinnor now just 15 points in arrears with the wind at their backs for the final 40 minutes.

A penalty by Williams 5 minutes into the second half gave the Chinnor faithful a lift as this had followed another bout of pressure where 3 points appeared scant reward. Then came the second critical point in the game. The referee, having awarded Chinnor a penalty some 10 metres from their line, reversed his decision following some back-chat. This appeared somewhat bizarre as the home side had been given the penalty, and not had it awarded against them. Rosslyn Park then duly kicked the ball in the corner and from the resulting line-out set-up the inevitable rolling maul to register another try. This was indeed the killer blow, giving Chinnor a mountain to climb. Two further tries by Park, against by now a demoralised Chinnor who were endeavouring to play catch-up rugby just made matters worse, making the final score line somewhat out of kilter with the general run of play. Chinnor also conceded 4 yellow cards for technical infringements with the penalty count also being massively in Park's favour. Whilst this hardly helped Chinnor's cause it did raise the odd question or two as to how one side could be adjudged as being so technically imperfect whilst the other was deemed to be whiter that white.