The 3rd team hosted Amersham & Chiltern at a packed out Chinnor Rugby Club on a glorious Saturday afternoon. The wind was a tad brisk, but the ground conditions were perfect, with the sun shining and clear skies.

Amersham & Chiltern IIs were currently sitting in 2nd place in the league with Chinnor at 7th, so Chinnor were getting prepared for a tough game. They host top of the table Bracknell in a few weeks time, so they no doubt wanted to send a message.
Chinnor started strong with some very well drilled pod work, this awarded the backs some good clean ball and sent Jeff Cole over for try number 1. This conversation was missed by Josh Woodeson, but a great start. 5-0.

With the wind in Chinnor’s favour they kept Amersham & Chiltern pinned down in the bottom corner and an excellently executed lineout by Chinnor’s pack saw Tom White marshal the maul over the tryline and touch down for another great team try with only 10 minutes gone. Josh Woodeson was still struggling to get his eye in, as the ball went sailing past the sticks again. 10-0.

With a wild wail from Will Taylor the ball was collected at kick off, and the Chinnor pack were off again. Number 10, Rob Nichols, made good use of the wind and once again won territory, getting Chinnor back in the red zone. This resulted in Mark Bradburn powerfully running over for his first try of the game, and again the conversion was missed. 15-0.

Fortunately complacency didn’t set in for Chinnor and within no time, they were back in Amersham & Chiltern’s half. Chinnor’s all round dominance was clear with some hard hitting tackles by Tom White, Rob Nichols and Dane White seeing at least 2 of their players stagger off, not to mention George White’s horrifically late train wreck of a tackle maiming one of the oppositions back line. Then with a scrum won by the forwards yet again, the back line were poised to strike. The move was called, John Down on the dummy line who held almost their entire backline, and Jayson Abbott’s hard hitting line saw the defence open up for Rob Nichols, who jinked through and scored Chinnor’s 4th. Again the conversation was missed (do Chinnor need a new kicker?). 20-0.

With another excellent wild wail from Will Taylor the ball was collected, and trundled up with some solid play all round. Chinnor were back in try scoring territory with a scrum in their favour. The flexible back line had changed around and saw John Down sitting in at 10, Jayson Abbot at 12, and Rob Nichols at 13. The move was called, and Rob Nichols broke the line and it looked like it was going to be his second. He was held up just before the line, but with some fantastic support play by John Down saw him scoop the ball up, and score his first of the game. It was then, that Josh Woodeson got his eye in, and managed to knock it between the uprights. 27-0.

There was no doubt that the Chinnor pack were working in perfect unison, and this rewarded them with another try before half time. This was collected by the man who invented tours, Mark Bradburn – who had just picked up his 2nd of the game. The conversion was missed. 32-0.

Just before half-time Chinnor were reduced to 14 men as Alex Wingfield was shown a yellow for being off his feet in a ruck. He protested by giving the referee a full re-enactment of events, however he was still asked to take a rest.
The half time communications were nothing but positive, captain George White just emphasised that there was to be no easing up and that Chinnor were to push for further scores. They did just this, as within 5 minutes the on form Jeff Cole was sprinting over the try line to score his 2nd and the 'Wild Boys' 7th try of the day. The conversion was once again wide of the mark. 37-0.

It was at this point that Chinnor’s dominance over the park took its toll on the Amersham pack. Another man had to leave the field due to injury, leaving Amersham without any further trained front row, resulting in uncontested scrums for the remainder of the fixture. John ‘ Wreck it Ralph’ Goodson was somewhat miffed by this turn of events as he was like the proverbial pig in muck during scrum time, much to the detriment of his opposite number.
Although Chinnor had lost the advantage of the dominant scrums, they continued to press in all other areas of the game and continue to further extend their lead. Guy Hackshaw was next to break the line and touch down. He took the resulting conversion himself only to see it unluckily bounce off the upright. 42-0.

Chinnor did not ease off and their persistent pressure saw Rob Nichols dance through the defensive line, run from within his own half, maze past the fullback and touch down under the posts for an excellent individual try and his second score of the day. Josh Woodeson cleanly stroked over the conversion, but unbelievably the referee ruled it null and void due to misplacement by a few inches. 47-0.

Amersham were desperate to get a score on the board. They pressed well and were looking strong, but a rush defence saw Will ‘Wild Bill’ Taylor smash their Captain and end the attack. The Amersham man sustained an injury in the collision and unfortunately meant Amersham were forced down to 14 men. It was the next one of Chinnor’s tries that saw the biggest celebration. A couple of solid crash balls from the forwards and some slick passing from the backs saw John Down break the line and spin a fantastic pass straight out to the wing where it was collected by oncoming James ‘Peter’ Way, who then touched down in the corner for his first try of the season. His jubilant and somewhat relieved celebrations brought a tear to the eyes of players and supporters alike. The conversion was tough, but brilliantly struck by Guy Hackshaw to make the score 54-0 in Chinnor’s favour.

Amersham pressed hard again, but their attack was once again snuffed out. Then the Chinnor backs broke free again with strong running from Down, Draper and Abbott. The ball was fed out to the on form Jeff Cole who once again got over the line for his second of the day. Josh Woodeson took extra care to place the ball for the following conversion and slotted it over. 61-0.

Amersham lost another player and Chinnor had Tom Warner set to the sin bin for a fracas on the floor, meaning Amersham ended the game with 13 on the pitch to Chinnor's 14 with a final score of 61-0.

It was a great performance all round from the ‘Wild Boys’ and every player performed with man of the match quality. However the stand out performance was from Rob Nichols who was nominated man of the match by his team mates. Mare of the match went to Dane White as he was too busy romancing the love of his life, he did not notice George White trying to bring him back on the pitch, and he also neglected his water distribution responsibilities.

Tries: J. Abbott, M. Bradburn (2), J. Cole (2), J. Down, G. Hackshaw, R. Nichols (2), J. Way, T. White

Conversions: J. Woodeson (2), G. Hackshaw (1)

Man of the Match: R. Nichols
Mare of the Match: D. White

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