CHINNOR remain unbeaten on the road as they produced a gritty display to leave Yorkshire with a well-deserved bonus-point victory.

We arguably delivered one of our most assured performances of the season to produce an energy-sapping effort and beat Leeds Tykes at a windy West Park Leeds RUFC.

The first 40 minutes proved to be error-strewn for both sides, but we superbly dealt with everything which came our way after the break to stop the hosts from adding to their 12 points.

After tries from Jason Worrall and James Bourton put Chinnor into a 15-12 lead at half-time, Kieran Goss and Will Millett then scored two fine counter-attacking tries to secure the five points.

Special mentions have to go to our two young props Elliot Chilvers and Rob Hardwick, who were exceptional in the front row all afternoon.

It was a great way to bounce back from the disappointment of last weekend and record our third victory in four away games – the only blemish being our draw at Caldy – in National League 1.

Director of Rugby, Richard Thorpe made nine changes – two positional – from last weekend, with Conor Brockschmidt, Luke Carter, Hardwick, Oscar Heath, Caolan Ryan, Cameron Terry and Worrall coming into the XV.

The first half was played in blustery conditions, which perhaps explained the number of errors in the opening 40 minutes.

Before three minutes had been played, both sides had remarkably scored a try.

With less than 60 seconds gone, Tykes centre Tom Williams blocked Carter’s box-kick and collected the loose ball to dive over for an unconverted try.

The crowd barely had time to catch their breath when Chinnor replied instantly. Goss, impressive again off the right wing, caught the restart and broke forward, offloading to Worrall who marked his first start of the season with a try. James Bourton stepped up to convert from the touchline and make it 7-5.

Only three minutes had been played, but already a lot had happened and we then unfortunately lost lock Ben Glynn to a knee injury on seven minutes which saw Willie Ryan switch to the second row and Alfie North come on at blindside flanker.

After the early scores, neither side was really able to make any territory count, but we crucially took our chance on 19 minutes. After stealing a Tykes lineout deep in the attacking half, Fred Tuilagi carried well to haul us to within a few metres. Inside centre Bourton was then sent through a gap by Carter and over the whitewash for his seventh try of the season. Unfortunately, his conversion attempt was charged down, but we now led 12-5.

Tykes went on to enjoy more possession and could have cut our lead on 32 minutes, but Charlie Venables’ penalty slipped wide.

They did go on to level a couple of moments later, though, and fully deserved their second try of the game. Williams ran a lovely line off a scrum, offloaded to Venables who then fed Andrew Lawson to dot down under the posts. Venables added the extras to make it 12-12.

However, just as we thought the first half would end level, Tykes were penalised at the restart and Bourton slotted the penalty to put us into a 15-12 lead.

The hosts made a strong start to the second half, looking bright with the ball in hand, but our defence held strong, repelling all that came our way – a trend which continued throughout the half.

Leeds looked the most likely to score next and very nearly did, but we did excellently to hold up what looked to be a certain try when the hosts mauled their way to our try-line from a lineout.

Having withstood the pressure, we then punished another error to extend our lead. Tykes lost possession in the middle of the pitch and we spread wide quickly with Worrall finding Goss with a fine offload. The winger then handed off a tackler, raced through a gap and clear of any Leeds players to score a superb 50m try for his third in as many games. Bourton then brilliantly converted from the touchline to make it 22-12 after 50 minutes.

We started to enjoy more pressure as we looked to take control of the game, but we were never able to really deliver that final pass. And just past the hour we were dealt another challenge as No 8 Tuilagi was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle.

Tykes nearly took advantage almost instantly, but knocked on after a couple of fine offloads had cut us open. They continued to enjoy more possession, but it was to our credit that we came through the sin-bin without conceding, as the boys put in a brilliant defensive effort to force a number of errors, while Ben Manning brilliantly stole a Tykes lineout just five metres from our try-line.

Even with Tuilagi back on the pitch a defensive shift was still needed and the home side were unable to make any inroads forward. We looked in control despite not having a lot of the ball, but when we did we made it count to secure another crucial four-try bonus-point.

With just seconds to go Leeds lost possession on our 22 and Millett countered from full-back. Racing through a gap and over half-way, he fed Bourton who timed his pass well to send Millett over in the corner. Bourton then added the extras from the touchline in what proved to be the last play, wrapping up a fine away victory.

Leeds Tykes: Lawson, Turagabeci, Venables, Williams, Jukes, Davies, C Lloyd, Peace, Brown, Hardman, Brady, Burke, T Lloyd, Smith, Collins.
Reps: Pleasants, Thiart, Bell, Hardwick, Robinson.

Chinnor: Millett, Goss, Worrall, Bourton, Heath, C Ryan, Carter, Chilvers, Terry, Hardwick, Glynn, Brockschmidt, W Ryan, Manning, Tuilagi.
Reps: Lines, Lomas, North, Walsh, Yawayawa.