Chinnor end on a high but promotion play off eludes them

London Irish Wild Geese 22 Chinnor 33

Match Report By Doug Humphries

Chinnor had a dream start when in the first minute No 8 Ali Bone broke through the Irish defence to set up a platform for a forward drive from which flanker Bradley scored with Strang converting.

Chinnor maintained the early pressure and took possession from a 5 metre lineout. A quick pass to Bevon Armitage had him held up on the line but with Manning adding weight to the cause they both went over the try line with Armitage claiming the score for this unconverted try.

London Irish gradually clawed their way back into the game and a rolling maul put Karl Gibson over for an unconverted try. This boosted their confidence and they began to play a much more expansive game which took them deep into Chinnor’s territory. Fluent handling along their backs gave wing Matt Killeen the room to round the Chinnor defence and score with Kitching converting and levelling the scores at 12-12.

An injury to Irish lock, Evans delayed the game for 5 minutes. On restarting the Irish maintained their attack and two forward passes prevented them from taking the lead.

Just before half time Chinnor’s full back Goss’s attack broke the Irish defence and the supporting C J Osazuwa took play near to the Irish try line. From the resulting scrum, No 8 Bone broke blind to score out wide. Strang converted for a 19-12 lead to Chinnor.

5 minutes into the second half, forward dominance put Ben Manning over for a bonus point try converted by Strang. Play became even with Goodfellow making a 25 metre break then the Irish counterattack failing to produce a try due to a knock on 5 metres from the line.

Manning began to assert his authority with more penetrating runs into the Irish 22metre area where a driving maul put Lamont over for Chinnor’s 5th try, converted by Strang.

London Irish continued fighting back and illegal defensive work by Tom Burns earned him a yellow card ‘rest’. This allowed the Irish pack to bulldoze their way over the Chinnor line for Gibson to score their 3rd try which was unconverted. This raised their game even more and their attacking play was stopped by flanker Pienaar whose tactics were deemed inappropriate and he too had a yellow card.

With Chinnor now down to 13 players the Irish pushed the Chinnor defence back until they were able force their way over the line for Moore to score the final points of the game.

With 2nd place Old Elthamians also winning their game with a bonus point this puts them in the play off position for promotion, leaving Chinnor next season to achieve this goal.

Teams

London Irish Wild Geese
G Owen, M Killeen, B Kitching, B Meeson, T Richards, P Hodgkinson, T Barker, K O’Sullivan, K Gibson, C Connor; A Evans, J Touma; S Moore ©, T Bush, H Rowland

Interchanges: E Fraher, M Bunn, G Drye, L Starling, T Eastham, K Miles

Chinnor
Kieran Goss, Henry Lamont, Danny Barnes ©, Bevon Armitage, Charlie Broughton, Basil Strang, Greg Goodfellow, Tom Price, Joe Hutchinson, Jay Tyack, CJ Osazuwa, Ben Manning, Ben Pienaar, Alex Bradley, Ali Bone

Interchanges: Jamie Townsend, Henry Birch, Tom Burns, Steve Castle, Junior Fatialofa

Scorers

London Irish Wild Geese
Tries (time): Gibson 13, 70 Killeen 17 Moore 75
Conversions (time): Kitching 20
Penalty Goals (time):

Chinnor
Tries (time): Bradley 1 Armitage 9 Bone 40 Manning 43 Lamont 60
Conversions (time): Strang 1, 40, 43, 60
Penalty Goals (time):

Referee: Mr Philip Davies
Attendance: 200
Half time score: 12-19
Full time score: 22-33
Star man: Basil Strang - Chinnor