Defeat from the jaws of victory

Due to a late change the U16's turned out in the gold away kit for this first league match of the season. The weather was wet, hot, sunny, windy , humid all in the space of 20 mins which made for some interesting handling challenges. Without the help of the TMO for check back , Marlow scored first with a long kick to around the corner flag and then a close range drive from the resulting line out. The game was back and forth with some great kicking from Chinnor's 10 , before they scored a try to even things up ( 5-5) . Marlow added a second before half time but, with neither kicker converting, scores were finely poised at 10-5 at the break.

The second half saw Chinnor with the wind behind them pinning Marlow back in their own half. A bad dose of white line fever gripped the Chinnor pack who could have taken any of the opportunities presented to them but a number of solo efforts didn't quite work out. Chinnor's flanker eventually broke through and touched down followed by a superb conversion. Marlow continued to work hard with a flow of replacements but Chinnor were camped in their half for the majority of the second period . With 2 minutes on the clock the play shifted to the Chinnor end of the field. Following some handbags and a penalty reversal Marlow, were awarded a penalty in front of the posts which their kicker failed to convert. Again, with TMO not having reached U16's matches as yet, Marlow ended up with a set piece in the Chinnor 22 and for the first time in the match, their back line found clear space in front of them, scoring with the last play of the game .

From a Chinnor perspective, the boys acquitted themselves well but it was a disappointing outcome for what had been a well contested game but these things hinge on narrow margins, not all of which are under your control.