Dear Supporters, friends and family,

As we approach our final home game despite our ground breaking season there is a distinct air of nervousness, needing 5 points against fourth placed Taunton to keep pulling on the heels of OEs! For them travelling to the Forest of Dean is not a sure fire 5 pointer but without looking over our shoulder, we have to take care of business at home.

That is the only thing we can control on Saturday. Taunton are a fantastic club with a great coaching set up and squad. They started the season all guns blazing and looked a sure fire top two team. Let's not forget they are one of the teams we drew with prior to Christmas.

For us this has been a phenomenal season, the most successful in the clubs history; losing the least amount of games, scoring more points and conceding the least in the league.

The Squad are however well aware that on a few occasions we have not performed to the best of our ability which is why we sit agonisingly in 3rd place thinking if only… we are a tight knit family that enjoy each other's company, hence the reason the majority of the squad will be here next season (I shall be announcing retentions shortly.) Having a high sense of esteem involves the acceptance of criticisms and the ability to react to them in order to improve ourselves. This is vital whether we are fighting for success in N1 or striving to win N2 next season.

I recently enjoyed a day behind the scenes at an NBA club where they repeatedly talk about 'Healthy self esteem' and how it is related to Openness, Honesty, Acceptance, Cooperativeness, Independence, Creativity, Rationality, Flexibility and Willingness to admit mistakes. This is a very similar mantra to the All Blacks. People with healthy self esteem treat others with fairness and a non judgemental attitude. There is a close relation to arrogance and self esteem and sometimes people confuse them together.… this is not the case in our squad.

We have a brilliant culture and people who don't buy into it don't last long! Outsiders looking in assume money dictates the trends at Chinnor but I'd welcome anyone to come and spend a day with me and understand what the 'Real Chinnor' is about - honest, hard work and most importantly shrewd business. We attract class players not for monetary gains but a culture that is hard to be bettered anywhere else in semi-pro rugby. We help people in life, and have no interest in Players who are not wanting to buy into our beliefs. I have probably received calls from 40 Championship/N1 players in the last 6 weeks and they soon disappear when they realise our pay scales.

I am truly proud of my boys and what we have achieved this season. Your support has been unprecedented regularly selling out lunches and we have broken the 1,000 mark at three home games. It is not a coincidence that your support in numbers has resulted in some of the most memorable performances in our clubs history. Success breeds success and whilst we are flourishing on the field our club keeps growing off the field too.

Let's have another bumper day, let the beer flow and your voices reign in our final push for promotion. Fortress Chinnor has not been broken since January 2016 - we need the 5 points so let the black and white army sing!

See you all Saturday

Kick Off 3.00pm

Matt Williams
Director of Rugby