Saturday saw Chinnor make their first journey to the South West this season hoping to get back to winning ways on the road against a Taunton team buoyed by their first ever win at Redruth last time out.

The league leaders made three changes to the team that beat Worthing the previous weekend. CJ Osawuza came in at No 8 with Tom Burns moving round to blindside flanker and Alex Waddingham starting at openside. Junior Fatialofa returned at inside centre with Bevon Armitage outside him at 13.

In what was a tight low-scoring first half, the Titans took the game to the league leaders from the kick off and were rewarded with a penalty after 3 minutes which was kicked by Taunton full back Gary Kingdom.

As the teams settled down the home side seemed to have the edge and disrupted Chinnor’s lineout stopping the visitors from getting into their rhythm. With Chinnor flanker Alex Waddingham sin-binned for not retreating 10 metres from a Lewis Webb quick tap, the hosts had several chances to extend their lead but let the opportunities slip.

On 32 minutes, Chinnor’s fly half Sam Angell levelled the scores with a penalty but were once again reduced to 14 men when on the stroke of half time Junior Fatialofa was given a 10 minute rest.

The Titans had a numerical player if not points advantage at the start of the second half but once again the visitors held out and started to up their game. Chinnor’s forwards started to take the upper hand and broke the deadlock when their pack picked and went around the corner several times on the Titans line leading to a try from back row Tom Burns. Angell converted the extras.

On 60 minutes, CJ Osazuwa was yellow carded but yet again the hosts were unable to breach Chinnor’s defence. The visitor’s then extended their lead when Sam Angell kicked a penalty won by the forwards at the scrum.

With just over 10 minutes to go and the score at 3-13, Taunton upped the pace and were duly rewarded when full back Kingdom closed the gap with a second penalty. The Titans kicked on again to force a mistake which allowed winger Richard Bright to capitalise and race around under the posts to score. Kingdom added the conversion to draw level.

With 2 minutes to go, Taunton went on the attack once again and Kingdom lined up a drop goal to win the game but it was pushed wide for the final whistle to blow.

“Taunton did a great job in nullifying one of the key areas in our armoury in our line-out” said Chinnor director of rugby Matt Williams.

“The second half I thought we got control of the game and our set-piece became a bit more dominant which allowed us to get some front-foot ball which allowed us to take the lead”

At the halfway point of the season and after two recent away defeats, this result has steadied the ship for Chinnor who must now be considered serious promotion contenders.

Next up are local rivals Henley Hawks who will be visiting Kingsey Road at the weekend for the big one!

Teams

Taunton Titans
Gary Kingdom, Aron Struminski, Nick Mason ©, Matt Tichias, Freddie Fraser, Toby East, Lewis Webb, Alec Chase, Jon Gatford, Jake Caulfield, Stuart Persey, Sean Lonsdale, Conor Harbison, Dan Frost, Sam Prior

Interchanges: Alex Spurdle, Jack Owlett, Blake Lugg, Tom Hooper, Richard Bright

Chinnor
Kieran Goss, Steve Castle, Bevon Armitage ©, Junior Fatialofa, Henry Lamont, Sam Angell, Greg Goodfellow, Tom Price, Mark Darlington, Andy Darlington, Nathan Hannay, Ross Parkins, Tom Burns, Alex Waddingham, CJ Osazuwa

Interchanges: Ricky Cano, Jay Tyack, Koree Britton, Gus Jones, Ralph Jones

Scorers

Taunton Titans
Tries (time): Bright 78
Conversions (time): Kingdom 78
Penalty Goals (time): Kingdom 3, 71

Chinnor
Tries (time): Burns 51
Conversions (time): Angell 52
Penalty Goals (time): Angell 32, 68

Referee: Gareth Holsgrove
Attendance: 551
Half time score: 3-3
Full time score: 13-13
Star man: Lewis Webb - Taunton Titans