On the final Saturday of January, Chinnor Wildboys hosted Aylesbury II’s. It was an important game for the Wildboys after their slip up the week prior.

The Wildboys had a minor panic on the morning of the game, with both Rob Nichols and Sam Ludgate being stricken with illness. However, Sam Ludgate showed his true Wildboy spirit and turned up for the game even if he had to spend much of the warm up on the porcelain throne. The Wildoys however were still thin on the ground so an emergency call went out to Dane White, who again with true Wildboy spirit agreed to sit on the bench even though his leg was hanging off in three different places.

As the game was started, it took a while before the Wildboys themselves did. It was Aylesbury who seemed more fired up for the game and it paid off when they were awarded an early penalty for a Chinnor infringement at the breakdown. Aylesbury opted to kick for the posts and it was a success, putting them 3 points ahead in the early stages.

Chinnor came close to scoring when Tom White chased down the Aylesbury fullbacks kick, the ball bounced just above Captain George White’s head and as he dived for the ball to score it was collected by an Aylesbury player to be touched down and the attack thwarted.
Shortly after Chinnor were in trouble as Sam Ludgate injured his wrist and was unable to play on, this saw Tom Warner heroically step up into the front row and George Dane White heroically step onto the pitch to join the rejigged pack. Dane made an instant impact when he failed to hear the referee’s whistle and continued to tackle an Aylesbury player, this led to one of the Aylesbury supporters getting rather upset and make a spectacle of themselves, even when both teams clearly viewed it as a mistake.

The game continued in a scrappy manner. Chinnor’s forwards were dominating the scrums and lineouts but then Chinnor would attempt to do too much with the ball and ended up knocking it on or missing their passes. It wasn’t long before Chinnor were mounting pressure on Aylesbury, they were camped out just metres from the tryline, but Aylesbury defended stoically and held off the Wildboy’s advances until the end of the first half.

As the second half began, it was clear that the Wildboys had some improved vigour in their attacking play, they continued to dominate and soon after, some well worked forward play saw Max Williams touching down for the first try of the game putting the score at 5-3. The in-form James Way then struck the conversion cleanly to further the lead for the Wildboys 7-3.

The game then stagnated for a period, much as it had in the first half. The Wildboys were still dominating the scrums and lineouts, but good tackling from the Aylesbury backs prevented Chinnor from developing their possession into tries. Some good team play saw Tom White force his way over the line only to be held up by a reluctant Aylesbury defence and again Chinnor were back to the drawing board.
As the game neared full time, Chinnor’s persistence paid off and it was Adam Draper who was running the ball over for the second try of the game putting the Wildboys 12-3 in the lead. This is how the score remained when the full time whistle blew.

It was a repeat performance from the Wilboys as the week earlier. All players individually played well, however the team failed to gel together as they had in previous weeks. This was largely down to the Aylesbury defence, they closed down the attacks and tackled well and made the it a hard fought win for the Wildboys.

Notable individual performances this week were Tom Warner who stepped up into the front row and scrummaged impressively, Jon Goodson, Tom White and George Hope, but man of the match this week went to Dane White who defied serious injury to put on an impressive display.

Mare of the match was unfairly awarded to Guy Woodeson, who put in a decent shift whilst on the pitch, but managed to pass the ball into touch and thus gained the award.

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Man of the match : Dane White
Mare of the match: Guy Woodeson
Tries: M.Williams, A.Draper
Convs: J.Way