Saturday saw the return of National League rugby after the festive break with Chinnor travelling to Cornwall determined to get their promotion charge back on track at Redruth. The Reds after two disappointing defeats in early December bounced back to form with a big win away at Barnstaple.

Chinnor made a number of changes to the side that drew with Henley last time out. Player coach Richard Thorpe came back in at open side, Tom Burns returned at Number 8 and Oxford Blue Basil Strang made his Chinnor debut at fly half. Junior Fatalofia started at inside centre, Steve Castle at full back with Kieran Goss moving round to the wing.

On a cloudy but dry day the visitors started brightly but soon found themselves trailing when Reds winger Lewis Vinnicombe broke through and timed his pass perfectly for scrum half Jack Oulton to go in under the posts. Full back Brett Rule converted.

Chinnor pressed again but managed to cough up two successive line-outs five metres from the Redruth line before they were rocked by another long range score when winger Alex Ducker gathered his own kick from the ten-metre line. Rule again converted and Chinnor were 14-0 down in under 15 minutes.

Debutant Strang and Brett Rule both missed penalty attempts before Redruth scored a crucial third try just before the break. Quick ball from a lineout saw Reds replacement Shaun Buzza break a tackle to make the line. Brett Rule again converted and Redruth were all but out of sight at 21-0.

Bevon Armitage came on for Junior Fatialofa at half-time but there was no let up from Redruth when centre Joel Matavesi wriggled over in the corner for their try bonus point. Shortly after Chinnor were caught in possession on their 22 and Angus Taylor did the necessary to give Redruth and unassailable 29-0 lead after 50 minutes.

In the final quarter, Chinnor salvaged some pride with two tries by Steve Castle and Luke Hibberd. The latter was started by a great run from Tom Price and converted by Basil Strang to leave the final score 29-12.

“We made far too many mistakes and some of our decision-making was poor” said a frustrated Chinnor director of rugby Matt Williams. “I was especially disappointed with our line-out. We let chances slip away at crucial moments but fair play to Redruth who deserved the win. We will look to regroup and put right what went wrong”.

Elsewhere Bishop’s Stortford were surprisingly beaten at home by Cinderford allowing Old Elthamians to go top with their win at Clifton. Chinnor stay in third place ahead of Taunton. It’s another West Country trip for The Villagers next weekend to Barnstaple who lost away at Canterbury.

Teams
Chinnor
Steve Castle, Luke Hibberd, Danny Barnes ©, Junior Fatialofa, Kieran Goss, Basil Strang, Greg Goodfellow, Ricky Cano, Koree Britton, Jay Tyack, Nathan Hannay, Ross Parkins, Alex Bradley, Richard Thorpe, Tom Burns

Interchanges: Tom Price, Mark Darlington, Ben Manning, Bevon Armitage, Henry Lamont

Redruth
Brett Rule, Lewis Vinnicombe, Joel Matavesi, Palepoi Nonu, Alex Ducker, Angus Taylor, Jack Oulton, Tommy Phillips, Ben Priddey, Craig Williams, Luke Hattam, Bradley Howe, Chris Fuca, Mark Grubb, Kyle Marriott

Interchanges:
Samuel Parsons, Adam Wright, Dean Bonds, Shaun Buzza, Richard Brown

Scorers
Redruth
Tries (time): Oulton 5, Ducker 12, Buzza 37, Matavesi 43
Conversions (time): Rule 6, 12, 38
Penalty Goals (time): Taylor 50

Chinnor
Tries (time): Castle 68, Hibberd 78
Conversions (time): Strang 79
Penalty Goals (time):

Referee: Sara Cox
Attendance: 830
Half time score: 21-0
Full time score: 29-12
Star man: Alex Ducker - Redruth