Seconds lose to Blackheath

Chinnor 2nd XV welcomed Blackheath RFC to Kingsey Road for the first home league game. It was expected to be tough playing against quality opposition, and up until now we have only faced their third team, which proved to be tough. Unfortunately we had a few players missing from key positions.

The boys started well but were unable to convert anything into points which was a little disappointing. We were very unlucky when a two man overlap within 10 meters of the line was intercepted by Blackheath against the run of play, and they ran the 90 metres and scored under the posts. To add to this a penalty from Blackheath increased their lead to 10 points to 0.

Chinnor closed the gap with a penalty, but gave up the chance of another 3 points front of the posts with a quick penalty that went horribly wrong, and Blackheath turned over the ball. (Take your points!).
Alex Warriner had to retire due to a facial injury that required him to go to hospital for stiches, followed by Connor Hull with an injured leg. The game continued with both teams playing good attacking rugby and good defence, until just on half time when Blackheath were awarded another try which came from a forward pass and the half finished 15 points to 3 in favour of the visitors.

I personally felt the rub of the green with the whistle really favoured the visitors, with the penalty counts 15 against Chinnor to 3.

The first ten minutes of the second half was pretty even for both teams, the only problem with Chinnor was the ball travelled no further than number 10 and we lost our attacking play. Nick Harrison moved to the wing which; in hind sight, he should have stayed in the pack.

Blackheath began to apply more pressure on the pack than they were able to do in the first half, and were awarded a push over try, and were able to repeat this again 5 minutes later. Score 30 points to 3. The penalty tally kept mounting up against Chinnor with the visitors escaping on each occasion.

The final fifteen minutes saw Jon Lavin, Mark Wilkinson and Ian Stock come off the bench and the fresh legs made a great difference with the Chinnor pack improving their usual dominance in the pack and the whole game changed. A try was not given, with the ref believing he touched the line , but he was in the air when touched down.

Blackheath were fortunate to have the chance of scoring another try - now 37 points to 3. Despite the controversy of the ref, the boys never stopped giving their all and were finally rewarded with a try by Max Williams which was converted by Sam Angell and the final score was Chinnor 10 Blackheath 37. This was not a true reflection of the game, but Blackheath did deserve their win. Man of the match this week goes to Max Williams.