Chinnor Seconds vs. London Scottish

Chinnor Seconds Match Report for 3rd September 2011
London Scottish vs. Chinnor Seconds
Chinnor Seconds had their first league game against London Scottish away, with very little preparation due to two friendlies called off with Cheltenham and Tring not being able to raise teams. This was disappointing to say the least so with no game time as a team and then having to take on one of the strongest teams in the league. Chinnor knew this was going to be a very physical game and so it proved to be. From the kick off it was all Chinnor for the first 10 minutes and with two knock ons on an open try line, which was frustrating for the boys. The following 10 minutes Scottish put Chinnor under the hammer but couldn’t cross the line. First points went Scottish way with a penalty followed by a converted try after knocking on twice on the way to scoring. But Chinnor came straight back at them with a great try by new boy Tom Gray, and converted by other new boy Henry Colver, Scottish led 10 points to 7. In the 38th minute Scottish were awarded another successful penalty making the penalty count 9-1 against us, but that just spurred the boys on resulting in another great try by Bas Corpe converted by Colver. The first half finished 14 points to 13 in Chinnor’sfavour The second half started in the same way as the first with Chinnor unable to dot down a bouncing ball in the Scottish in goal area. Scottish managed a push over try followed by another successful penalty and Scottish were back in the lead 21 points to 14. Chinnor gave away a try when Ian Stock was tackled without the ball in front of the Ref who just waved play on and Scottish increased their lead to 28 points to 14. The penalty count in the second half was 7-3 to Scottish. Sadly for Chinnor, Scottish were allowed to get away with murder in both halves. Sadly Scottish felt the need to apologise for the standard of reffing and understood our frustration. Chinnor kept attacking and was on the way to score when the last pass for a certain try was intercepted by Scottish and this increased the lead to 33 points to 14. Once again Chinnor did not give up and hit straight back with a fantastic solo run by Tom Webb and the game finished 33 points to21. If one had to be critical, the main problem for the boys was that they lost the ball 9 times by turnovers in the second half alone in good attacking positions. This is something they must work on this week as well as first up tackling. All 18 players played well for the first time playing together in a competitive game and it bodes well for the season. Man of the match was Tom Gray, a fine performance at 15, particularly at broken field running. All new boys performed well Henry Colver in his kicking and play, as well as Harry Carr and Tom Gray - great assets to Chinnor Rugby Club and we welcome all the new players at Chinnor. It is good to have you with us. Although it was a loss the lads kept going until the end and started to show our patterns of play will prove to be successful.
Walter McGuicken