Chinnor U14 win away in their first ever cup match

Chinnor Under 14s gave an encouraging performance in their first ever 15 a-side game to
eventually overcome a committed Claverdon 34-10. An excellent contest played in superb
spirit in front of a large and vocal crowd at an extremely friendly club made for a
memorable morning for the team.
Chinnor’s over exuberance at the breakdown led to a number of penalties being conceded
which put Chinnor on the back foot. Claverdon eventually made this pressure tell and took
an early 5-0 lead. Chinnor struck back immediately. A good deep restart from Ed B was
chased down by Nathan, his speed took the defence by surprise as he pounced on the
bouncing ball to score a superb poachers try. Ed converted from wide to sneak the lead.
Chinnor started to dominate the exchanges and good strong running from Freddie and Tom
C caused continual problems for the defence. Chinnor extended their lead when Nathan
again showed blistering pace to out flank the defence from a midfield turnover. Claverdon
struck back just before the break when a charged down kick led to a try for their strong
running centre. 10-12
At Half time Chinnor made multiple changes to ensure the full squad got a run out.
Chinnor’s discipline improved in the second half and this led to them being able to
implement their expansive, running game. This was backed up by excellent first phase
possession where the boys illustrated how well they have adapted to lineouts and larger
scrums. Seb B’s work was exemplary at hooker with a super display of darts and hooking at
the scrum. Charlie S made some telling breaks but it was good to see him look to offload
and put his support into space. Charlie burst through several tackles to score and soon after
made another break and passed to the supporting Freddie to score. This put the game out
of reach at 10-22. Chinnor scored two more nice tries, a brace for both Freddie and Charlie,
in the final minutes to round off an impressive performance.
A super performance shows how far the boys have come in such a short time this season
but more importantly how much they still have to learn and improve in some key areas.