12th March 2024
Chinnor now 5 Points Clear at the top of National One after Huge Away Victory against Plymouth Albion.
Chinnor took a thoroughly deserved 5 point victory from a relentless battle against a dogged Albion in a torrential downpour on what was soon a water-logged pitch with standing water. Scoring 4 tries in such atrocious conditions was a fantastic performance from the squad, all underpinned by scrummaging dominance, game management and a steely resolve in defence.
Chinnor had not beaten the Janners for 2 years and were determined to end the run of defeats. Chinnor played with the wind in the first half, that offered a significant advantage as playing anything bearing any semblance to running rugby was only really possible in the first 25 minutes as the pouring rain steadily flooded the pitch!
With Chinnor showing their attacking rugby the hosts looked dangerous on turnover ball in the first 15 minutes and managed to break out of defence twice. But Chinnor struck first through a trademark Goss break down the left wing before being stopped a couple of metres from the line where Josh McNulty was on hand to finish off the move and crash over for the opening score, Worboys added the extras.
Carter and Worboys were now dictating the play with astute kicking behind the Plymouth defence, pinning them down in coffin corner. A superb grubber from mercurial stand-off Worboys forced a Plymouth knock on and a scrum to Chinnor. An unstoppable scrum from Chinnor was expertly controlled by Willie Ryan who plunged over . Another towering performance from the inspiring Captain who was always in the thick of it with his carrying, tackling and the odd lineout steal. 0-12.
Chinnor were now in control of the game and a prodigious 50/20 from Feeney saw a well worked lineout catch and drive power over with Walker touching down. Another good conversion from Worboys took Chinnor to a 0-19 lead 32 minutes.
Plymouth eventually managed to get some momentum and when a quick tap from the dangerous Oulton was adjudged to have been illegally stopped McNulty was sent to the bin. Chinnor seemed to have prevented the driving maul at source but a superbly executed cross kick from Putt saw Albion open their account, 5-19. Things got worse for Chinnor as the referee had spotted an infringement at the maul and yellow carded Curry on the stroke of halftime.
So in a few quick minutes Chinnor had gone from cruise control to looking at an extremely challenging start of the second half. Playing against the strengthening wind with 13 men and a vociferous crowd.
It is to their great credit that Chinnor showed they were up for the challenge with a huge rearguard effort as they repulsed a series of attacks and eventually won a turnover penalty. By now mud-covered shirts made it difficult to distinguish the players on both teams but the turnover was probably won by the dynamic Clementson. Expertly managed at the base by Carter, Chinnor managed to escape the 1O minutes without conceding.
That 10 minutes seemed to take the wind out of the Plymouth sails and although the majority of the half was played in Chinnor’s third they never really looked like conceding. The conditions were now absolutely atrocious and it was very difficult to string any attacks together.
Chinnor were desperate to score the bonus point try and on 75 minutes launched a final attack. A nasty bomb by Carter caused panic in the Plymouth ranks. A penalty was kicked to the corner and after a superb Curry take and drive Chinnor were inches from the line. A series of pick and drives continued under the posts and you could throw a blanket over 30 players. It was one final huge carry from Hardwick that finally got Chinnor the bonus point as the referee acrobatically dived over the melee to confirm the try. Worboys converted, 5-26.
A superb dogged and valiant performance in easily the worst conditions of the winter showed the true character of the team. The front row of Lines, Walker and Hardwick were outstanding and backed up with the work rate of the rest of the pack. Spare a thought for the backs who were bordering on hypothermia for much of the game but all played their part when called into action.
Man of Match - Rob Hardwick
