Chinnor 19-17 Henley (U14s)

Chinnor U14’s 19- Henley 17.

Chinnor U14’s were able to play on Henley’s main pitch and were able to use the huge changing rooms which created great excitement for this County Cup match for our boys.

It turned out to be a nail biting game of literally two halves. In the first half we were strong in all phases of play and put over 3 well worked team tries for our wingers to score. Two for Nathan Barlow Heal and one for Alfie Evans. Two were converted by our Capt Tom Bridges, one of which bounced over the horizontal which proved to be the difference. Our forwards rucked well and gave us plenty of ball against a bigger Henley pack. And when we executed our expansive 15 man game to stretch their defence the gaps opened for our wingers to exploit. Our defence was also solid and managed to stop a particularly strong and big centre who could have easily been mistaken for a coach as he had grown a beard!

At half time we put on 5 new players to give everyone game time instead of using the rolling subs option, which would have been better in hind sight. Henley came out in the second half much more determined and started dominating the possession. We leaked an early try through their big centre. This gave Henley more belief and heartened the partisan home crowd. Two further tries were scored by a couple of their fast backs, but only one was converted. Five minutes remained and our boys held firm and defended like theirs lives depended on it. To everyone’s relief the final whistle was blown and our boys cheered like we have never heard before.

Lots of lessons were learnt not least by the coach who made too many changes at once (the author of this report)! Apart from a massive team effort special mention must goto Harry Wilson at full back who made a try saving tackle and displayed great attacking flare on his first whole game for Chinnor; Ted Dewar at Tight Head for his excellent and powerful display in the loose; Morgan Billings for a mercurial effort and leadership ;Ed Bailey for some great hands and tackling at outside centre after a year off from injury and for our Capt, Tom Bridges who led from the front and inspired his team in adversity.

Grant Chanter