LAURENCE May held his nerve to land a last-minute conversion and earn Chinnor a thrilling victory over Cinderford.
As expected, it had proved a real battle at Kingsey Road and the hosts were rewarded for their persistence with time running out to pick up five points.
Piling on the pressure to overcome a 27-21 deficit, Chinnor were determined to find a way through Cinderford’s dogged defence.
And with the visitors down to 14 men following George Evans’s yellow card, the hosts found space out wide with Will Harries dramatically crossing in the corner.
Still trailing by a point, Chinnor needed the conversion and May kept his cool to send the ball sailing through the posts from the touchline and spark wild celebrations.
Following Rosslyn Park’s defeat at Plymouth Albion, the result sees fourth-placed Chinnor close the gap to third place to four points.
Director of rugby Matt Williams made three changes from the victory over Bishop’s Stortford last week.
Two of those came in the front row, with Josh Pieterse and Joe Rees handed starts, while May returned at fly-half with Caolan Ryan out with concussion.
Chinnor made a lighting start to a contest which had been billed as an attritional forwards battle and led 14-0 inside ten minutes with hooker Nick Selway scoring both tries against his former club.
The first started with a driving lineout. After Cinderford stopped our drive, centre Pete Laverick was tackled just short, but Selway picked up and drove over from five metres, May converting.
Five minutes later and it was 14-0. Another driving lineout saw Chinnor rumble towards the try-line and Selway profited to touch down. May added the extras again.
However, Cinderford’s response was impressive and, with Josh Hodson in the sin-bin, they went on to hit back and score three tries in the space of ten minutes, taking full advantage of their extra man.
A driving lineout resulted in Harry Hone going over for an unconverted try as they reduced the lead to nine points.
They continued to put the pressure on and Jack Hayes ran onto a grubber kick down the right to cross, George Barton converting.
Chinnor looked stunned and they conceded again on 26 minutes as Hayes collected a fine kick from Barton to dive over again. The Cinderford fly-half added the extras to make it 19-14.
The home side looked to respond before half-time and Jason Worrall was tackled metres from the line as they piled on the pressure, but they were unable to breach the defence before the break.
Chinnor did not let that deter them and they went on to dominate the first 20 minutes of the second period.
However, their sustained pressure did not herald the points it deserved, while a couple of handling errors and decisions against them at the set-piece allowed Cinderford to clear their lines.
Eventually they retook the lead on the hour mark, though, with the forwards continuously knocking on the door and Pieterse drove over under the posts. May converted to make it 21-19.
Chinnor looked like they were going to take control, but Cinderford had other ideas.
A Barton penalty reduced the arrears, before an Evans try saw the visitors go 27-21 in front with ten minutes to go.
Chinnor needed to dig deep and they showed great character to come back at Cinderford.
Camilo Parilli-Ocampo looked to have scored his first try for the club but was held up, before Jack Ramshaw and Ehize Ehizode went close.
Chinnor were never going to give in and won two late penalties which May kicked to the corner – the second of which resulted in a yellow card for Evans.
Time was up and with Cinderford defending the lineout well, Jake Ashby looked to feed the ball wide where there was a man advantage.
Laverick found May, who fed Worrall and the winger sent full-back Harries racing over in the corner for a dramatic last-minute try.
However, that still was not enough for the victory and the conversion was needed. Luckily May seemed to be the coolest man at Kingsey Road and the fly-half expertly held his nerve to send the ball through the middle of the posts.
Chinnor: Harries, Worrall, Yawayawa, Laverick, Hodson, May, Hoadley, Pieterse, Selway, Rees, Ramshaw, Dancer, Tyas, Kirwan, Ryan.
Reps: Parilli-Ocampo, McNulty, Ehizode, Treviranus, Ashby.
Cinderford: Tovey, Smith, Mansfield, Hayes, Sheldon, Barton, Porter, Baker, Brockett, Evans, Lemon, Gilbert, Shields, Hone.
Reps: Elliot, Smart, Bennett, Boulton, Williams.
