The 24th of October saw Aylesbury IIs host the wonderful Wildboys that are the Chinnor IIIs. Selection this week was tough for captain George White as 26 Wildboys said they were available and keen to play. With the 18 selected, 17 of them turned up on time and came out fully focused on the game ahead in the warm up. Dane White then finally arrived and the boys could begin their run throughs. It was within this warm up when Jayson Abbott strained his hamstring and was called unfit to play in the game. Fortunately Dan Cavanagh had bought his kit with him so he hastily got changed.
With the return of Wild Bill the pack was looking very strong and ready to dominate. The kick off saw the pack calmly collect and start to do what they do well; working around the fringes and forced an early penalty on the half way line. Rob Nichols then didn’t make touch with this kick but before long Chinnor had turned over and won themselves a lineout on Aylesbury’s 22. It came off the top, and a flat pass from Tom Jarvis helped the Chinnor 10 run onto the ball for the first attack of the game. The show and go worked yet again for Nichols, and saw him jink through for a try under the posts - converted by fullback Tom Hook.
A few minutes later the Wildboys had another lineout on the half way line, and yet again a flat pass was given to Nichols who stepped around his rather rotund opposite number and started making his way towards the Aylesbury try line with only the fullback to beat. The supporting run came from Guy Hackshaw, who went on to offer himself for the simple 2 on 1 pass which saw him dive over for Chinnor’s 2nd try.
After the restart Chinnor found themselves back in Aylesbury’s half and were awarded a penalty. Captain George White stated his intent clearly and Chinnor kicked for touch, which this time was made. A technically perfect lineout saw the Chinnor pack maul over from outside Aylesbury’s 22 and Guy Hackshaw made sure for a superb team try.
Aylesbury found it hard to regroup with big covering hits coming in from the likes of Jon Goodson and George Hope, and some fantastic turn over work by Adam Draper. Chinnor were awarded with their efforts when they saw a gap on the blindside and Adam Draper cut through the dog legged defensive line with only the fullback to beat down the touch line. Rob Nichols offered the inside pass, but this was not needed, as Adam Draper sold the fullback the dummy pass and cruised over for Chinnor’s 4th.
Half time 0-22
Chinnor’s chat from captain George White was very much ‘keep on doing what we are doing’ as it all seemed to be working well. After a great first half performance from Pieter Nell, he had to rush off to watch the last remaining African nation get knocked out the World Cup, so this saw Tom Warner come on as 2nd row. Pete Way also came on for Jason Hankins and the only other replacement at this stage was the 2 twins – Josh Culbert on for George Culbert, or the other way round, who knows… The rain started to drizzle down now at Aylesbury which cut Chinnor’s fast opening play down slightly, but before long Adam Draper found himself with a bit of space and scored his impressive 12th try of the season, out of only 4 games he has appeared in.
Aylesbury then tried to fight back, and some solid defence had to be put in all over the park, but the Wildboys have experience at keeping their opponents to nil, and before long they were back under control. Some fantastic scrummaging saw the pack turn 4 scrums in a row against the head so a huge hand goes to George White and his props Ben Wilkinson and Jon Goodson. Some open play saw the ball run along the hands and with a large overlap Pete Way was surely in for his first of the day. Alas, the coconut oil used from his recent holiday was still greased over his, albeit brown, hands and the ball slipped away from him. Not long after Dan Cavanagh found himself with ball in hand and whipped down the wing to score on his debut – only for it to be disallowed by the ref. With the game coming to a close, Dane White managed to bag himself a try with some solid work around the fringes.
Final Score 0-37
Another solid victory for the Wildboys, and it sees them keep their position behind Bracknell in 2nd place. Man of the Match was a hard choice this week, as every player played extremely well, most notably Guy Hackshaw who put a great shift in at back row. But Rob Nichols was crowned man of the match with Tom Hook as Mare because he only managed 1 conversion, and in fact sliced one directly in front of the posts.
You know you love me
xoxo
Gossip Girl
Man of the Match: Rob Nichols
Mare of the Match: Tom Hook
Tries: R.Nichols, G.Hackshaw (2), A.Draper (2), D.White
Convs: T.Hook