The Chinnor boys were fired up leading into the Witney match following their good win against top of the table a week earlier. The team was looking strong with the returns of Jon Goodson, Mark Bradburn, James Way and the resilience of John Down to play with a broken thumb, meant that confidence was high.

Chinnor looked strong from the off, with them camping out on Witney's try line for the first 15minutes. However what appeared to be very well drilled lineouts were flagged twice for not being straight. Then from the resulting scrummage, debutant scrum half Eddy was sent to the sin bin for coming round the side of the scrum too early and then not retreating for the resulting penalty.

This mistake put Chinnor on the back foot and, shortly afterwards, the powerful Witney pack drove over Chinnor's try line to score a well drilled try. Witney missed the resulting conversion leaving them 5-0 ahead.

Chinnor's response was amicable and Rob Nichols jinked through the Witney defence, ran half the pitch and scored a great individual try. The following conversion was narrowly missed by the returning James Way leaving the scores all tied at 5 each.

The big hits that had been seen from Chinnor the week earlier weren't quite showing through and plays weren't quite forming the way that the players knew they should be, which was clearly frustrating them. This led to Witney managing to get over the line again to put them 10-5 up just before half time.

The break came at the right time for Chinnor and allowed them to re-focus and get the team morale back on track to where it has been through the season so far.

The half time talk showed instant returns with Rob Nichols again breaking the Witney defence providing a clearing for Jayson Abbot to touch down to level it out at 10 a piece.

Chinnor continued to show dominance in the first 20 minutes of the second half and a delightfully drilled lineout that saw Tom White break through the Witney defence and off load to George White who powered through for a certain try, however the linesman raised his flag believing he saw a foot in touch. Tom disagreed with this decision and was consequently sent to the sin bin for a rest. Chinnor were again down to 14 men.

In the following minutes, Witney managed to score their third try of the game to put them 15-10 to the good. Chinnor did not let up even with 14 men on the pitch, and shortly after had a Scrum on the Witney 5m, which Chinnor dominated, driving Witney back and looking certain to score from, but it was ruled that the front row were lifting up their opposite numbers and Witney were awarded a penalty.

Things did not appear to be going Chinnor's way and 2 minutes from time saw Witney get over Chinnor's try line again. Rob Nichols and George Hope believed they had held the try up and, when the referee awarded it, their protestations led to the pair of them receiving yellow cards. Rob Nichols continued to argue the point with the Referee whilst he was off the pitch and subsequently received a red card.

Witney then scored the conversion from this try and the game ended 22-10 in Witney's favour.

The match was another solid performance from Chinnor and was evenly matched throughout, however f or Chinnor it was their discipline that ultimately let them down. They spent much of the fixture with a man stood off the pitch and the final score line was a reflection of this. But once again the there were glimpses of what a strong force Chinnor III's are becoming.
Man of the match - Jayson Abbott
Mare of the match - Rob Nichols

You know you love me
x o x o
Gossip Girl