CHINNOR produced a much-improved performance – but ultimately still left high-flying Sale with nothing to show for their efforts.

It was a display full of heart and a great brand of rugby, worthy of at least a bonus-point at a rather muted Heywood Road.

The records will only show a third-straight defeat which leaves us just above the bottom three on points difference, albeit we still have a game in hand on a few of the teams around us.

However, plenty of positives can be taken from the performance and we can head into next Saturday’s match at home to Cinderford looking to build further. Another plus point was seeing three homegrown players in Bradley Harewood, debutant Henry Pearson – a teenage tighthead who performed superbly in the second row - and Ben Wilkinson in the squad, while Army centre Pita Ratukadreu also impressed on his first appearance for the Club.

Ten changes – five positional – were made from the side which started the defeat against Taunton Titans last weekend. Mark Darlington, Morgan Eames, Pearson, Jack Walsh and Ratukadreu came into the XV, with Alfie North (blindside flanker), Ben Manning (No 8), Tom Price (fly-half), Nick Smith (right wing) and Will Feeney (full-back) moving positions.

Third-placed Sale made a fast start to open the scoring after just two minutes, with left wing Tom Walsh diving over out wide for an unconverted try. It certainly was not the ideal start, but we did not let our heads drop and it was a case of ‘next job’.

A good spell of patient possession led to a penalty about 40m out in the centre of the field and we opted for the points, with Price slotting the ball through the posts to get us off the mark.

Sale’s kicking game had been identified as one of their strengths during the week and it was important we also stayed patient in these kind of contests. We saw early on how opposing fly-half Kieran Wilkinson would look to influence proceedings, but he lost out to our full-back Feeney as the Australian refused to get bored, coming out on top in an intriguing kick battle which not only gave us field position, but led to so much more.

A shorter kick allowed us to gather, carry and make metres with Manning - who produced his best performance yet since returning from injury - storming forward before scrum-half Walsh looked like he was heading towards the try-line, only for a fine tackle. We then went wide and the ball was knocked on by James Robins with the Sale centre receiving a yellow card. We knew we had to take advantage of the extra man and, after Walsh and lock Eames went close, we did find our way over on 12 minutes when we took our time at a driving lineout and hooker Darlington touched down. Price slotted the extras and we now led 10-5.

Once back up to 15 players, the hosts slowly grew back into the game and should have scored their second try of the afternoon, but thankfully No 8 Stone Priestley-Nangle knocked on when he looked certain to score.

However, Sale did rediscover their clinical side to head into the break with a 15-10 lead.

After hooker Oliver Longmore went close at a maul, the next phase saw prop Dan Birchall drive over for an unconverted try to draw the scores level.

Moments later and we were forced into our first change of the afternoon with North suffering a foot injury and replaced by Will Cave, who went on to make an impressive contribution at six.

Three minutes before half-time and Sale crossed for a third time, though. Playing quickly off a lineout on the 22, flanker Andrew Hughes fed centre Fergus Mulchrone who charged over. Again, it went unconverted as the slight wind - which we had to our backs in the first half - was causing problems for Robins from the tee.

Heading into the break, we were pretty happy with the opening 40 minutes. It had been a big improvement from the previous week and, with only five points separating the sides, it was game on.

However, the home side started the second period strongly and secured their four-try bonus point on 45 minutes when Longmore went over at back of a driving maul – Robins adding the extras – to make it 22-10.

To our players’ credit, we refused to lie down and launched an impressive response. We were playing some superb rugby, the highlight being Manning’s sublime one-handed offload out the back of the hand when he looked like he had run out of room on the right touchline – jouer! Eames then carried hard as we were within metres of the try-line and Sale were again reduced to 14 with flanker Jake Barron sin-binned for a tactical offence.

It was all Chinnor now and again Manning carried well, before Eames and wing Josh Hodson made metres. We worked the ball back to the right where we had created a two-on-one, with Feeney feeding Eames who dived over the whitewash for what looked like a certain try, but it was deemed to be held up.

We deserved a try for our efforts and we created another opportunity on the hour only for the ball to be dropped over the try-line after Smith – who performed superbly on the right wing – had excellently collected replacement scrum-half Luke Carter’s fine grubber.

From there, Sale countered from their own try-line and nearly recreated their National 1 try of the week from last Saturday at Esher. They broke over half-way and Hodson did brilliantly to stop Walsh as he raced towards our 22, affectively preventing the score there and then, before Mulchrone hacked on in hope and thankfully the ball went dead. Phew!

A Chinnor score just would not come and for all of our efforts, the scoreline was looking harsh, but sport is unforgiving like that and with eight minutes to go the home side did cross for a fifth time with replacement wing Nev Edwards finding his way over to make it 27-10.

Even if the match had finished there and then, this was a performance to be positive about, but the boys got the second try they deserved in the last play. Replacement centre Will Blakemore carried hard and set up Carter for a fine try. Price stepped up to add the conversion and the full-time whistled sounded.

Definitely not the result we wanted and frustratingly the performance was worthy of so much more, however we head into Cinderford at home next Saturday with a platform to build on, but knowing we need points.

Sale: Brady, Hirskyj-Douglas, Mulchrone, Robins, Walsh, Wilkinson, Bradley; Birchall, Longmore, Ford, Bamber, Gray, Barron, Hughes, Priestley-Nangle.
Reps: Brown, Carlile, Stout, Edwards, Street.

Chinnor: Feeney, Smith, Hughes, Ratukadreu, Hodson, Price, Walsh; Lines, Darlington, Harewood, Eames, Pearson, North, Heathman, Manning.
Reps: Robinson, Wilkinson, Cave, Blakemore, Carter.