CHINNOR fell to their first defeat of 2023 as Plymouth Albion fought back to win an attritional contest in Devon.
Having deservedly led 12-7 at the break, the question was ‘had we scored enough points while on top?’
Well, the answer was ‘no’, as two quick tries knocked the stuffing out of us, while our lineout proved to be our Achilles heel all afternoon.
Saying that, had the odd offload come off in the first half we would have been talking about a larger lead at the break, but five points is nothing in this sport and Brickfields - having been relatively silent for 50-odd minutes - roared into life off the back of the two Plymouth tries.
The defeat - our first since the end of November - leaves us fourth from bottom in National 1, but we are only five points behind eighth-placed Birmingham Moseley with a game in hand.
Six changes - two positional - were made from a fortnight ago. Kieran Goss, Max Heathman, Keston Lines and Finn Theobald-Thomas came into the starting XV, with Conor Brockschmidt moving to the second row and Alfie North to blindside flanker.
The boys looked sharp from the first minute, with breaks from centre Jason Worrall and full-back Nick Smith, as well as a carry from Brockschmidt catching the eye.
However, just ten minutes in and we were forced into a change, with Brockschmidt limping off with a hamstring injury and Ben Manning making his return from nearly four months out - 70 minutes in the row is a pretty brutal welcome back.
We continued to dominate the opening exchanges and deservedly took the lead on 14 minutes. Theobald-Thomas was stopped just short at a driving maul, but we kept on going and No 8 Willie Ryan forced his way across for an unconverted try.
Plymouth’s reply was swift, with hooker Jamie Salter going over at the back of a driving maul and Tom Putt converting for a 7-5 lead.
That try didn’t deter us, though, as we were straight back on the attack. Scrum-half Luke Carter’s break created a promising opportunity and Gossy was stopped ten metres out.
We continued to apply the pressure, but just couldn’t turn territory into points with offloads not sticking, while we were struggling with our lineouts.
Our scrum, however, was firing and another penalty at set-piece time gave fly-half Will Feeney the opportunity to kick up the field and then to the corner as Putt was sin-binned for a high tackle.
Albion stole the lineout and cleared, but we roared straight back and found ourselves a couple of metres out, picking and going. We then scored the second try we deserved when Ryan popped the ball to Theobald-Thomas and the young hooker finished well from close range. Smith slotted the conversion and we now led 12-7 after 33 minutes.
The first ten minutes of the second period was very similar to the previous 40, but Plymouth suddenly roared into life.
Creating a three-on-one on the right wing, Smith did just enough to delay their attack and openside flanker Heathman brilliantly got back to make a superb try-saving tackle. Albion's Frankie Nowell attempted the offload and it fell nicely into the hands of left-wing Dean Hammond who kicked clear.
However, we didn’t find touch and with several Chinnor players also offside there was space over on the left wing. Plymouth switched quickly and a long pass found Kyle Speare who dived over in the corner. Putt added the extras to make it 14-12 to the hosts.
The Plymouth supporters had now woken up and encouraged by the enthusiastic PA announcer, got right behind their team. The Albion players seemingly responded, scoring their second try just a couple of minutes later as a series of offloads led to George Mills going over under the sticks. Putt converted to make it 21-12 after 53 minutes.
We were up against it now, but we were still able to create chances and had we turned a 68th-minute lineout five metres out into a try things could have been different.
Instead, we finished the match with 14 as Goss was sin-binned for a deliberate knock on, and under the cosh as Plymouth searched for a four-try bonus point.
After Angus Hodges was held up, the home side did get what they were after when Speare scored his second of the afternoon, with Putt’s successful conversion being the final action.
A long old trip to return with nothing, but we go again at home to Bishop’s Stortford next Saturday.
Plymouth Albion: Putt, Speare, To'a, Eastgate, Clement, Jones, Oulton; Beasley, Salter, Rukhadze, Clemson, Collier, Clarke, Mills, Stupple.
Reps: McGregor, Wilkinson, Hodges, Raumakita, Nowell.
Chinnor: Smith, Goss, Worrall, Hughes, Hammond, Feeney, Carter; Lines, Theobald-Thomas, McNulty, Down, Brockschmidt, North, Heathman, Ryan.
Reps: Robinson, Millar-Mills, Harewood, Manning, Walsh.
