LONDON SCOTTISH 17, CHINNOR 5

CHINNOR’S defence was well and truly put to the test in a 17-5 defeat at Championship side London Scottish.

Played in boiling hot conditions at Richmond Athletic Ground, the visitors put in a hard-working and dogged performance in a friendly played over three periods.

Scottish scored all of their points in the opening 30-minute session, before Chinnor improved throughout the contest and deservedly got off the mark through prop Charley Robinson.

The National League 1 club headed into the fixture on the back of two dominating victories at last weekend’s Rams Festival.

Chinnor had travelled to Richmond fully aware a tougher test awaited them and, despite having more possession in the opening 30 minutes, found themselves 17-0 down.

Fly-half Harry Sheppard’s penalty put the hosts into an early lead, before they made it 10-0 on 16 minutes.

Luke Hibberd and Dan Barnes combined brilliantly to feed Kyle Whyte, who was denied a certain try by Craig Duncan, only for the Chinnor centre to be sin-binned for not rolling away.

Scottish kicked to the corner and prop Lewis Wynne was driven over for the first try of the afternoon, Sheppard converting.

The home side continued to knock on the door and extended their lead to 17 points when Barnes raced over under the posts, Sheppard adding the extras.

Chinnor’s Kieran Goss was sin-binned within five minutes of the second 30-minute period, but the visitors dug deep to keep the hosts at bay.

And they had a golden opportunity to reduce the arrears when back to 15 players, but Goss knocked on when attempting to touch down.

Jack Ingall was yellow-carded for Scottish in the latter stages of the second session and Chinnor piled on the pressure with Danny Barnes and Willie Ryan stopped short, but they were unable to get on the scoreboard.

However, their efforts were rewarded at the start of the final 20-minute period when Robinson grounded following a catch and drive for an unconverted try.

Chinnor were on the front foot and they were the better side for the remainder of the match.

They continued to push Scottish back and had one final chance to cross again, but lock Joe Dancer was unable to latch on to fly-half Laurence May’s cross-field kick.

Chinnor complete their pre-season campaign with their final and only home friendly against Carmarthen Quins next Saturday.