Maid’s Indiscipline Aids Colts’ Success

ON a bitterly cold winter?s afternoon at Tadley Rugby Club, the two best teams from Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire came head to head in the culmination of a season long league and Chinnor Colts took on the power of Maidenhead in a match where the ?maids? were generally deemed to be favourites.

The match started with both sides testing out their opposite numbers and with a strong Maidenhead pack, the bedrock of their success, meeting the tandem power of Ian Stock and Ed Devine with the excellent hooking and input to the line-out of Jason Lang.

Early driving runs from the Chinnor backs saw them stifled, and after 10 minutes Maidenhead drove down the pitch and their tight head prop forced over at the base of the posts and a simple conversion moved the score to 0 ?7.

Josh Kirby at the base of the maul taking a heavy pounding, James Hewitt and Harry Hillier getting wrapped up, and Maidenhead took the upper hand. Fastball out of the ruck, quick passes down their line created an overlap and their second try. An excellent kick made the score 0?14.

Throughout the match Maidenhead were hampered by their illegal play but good, independent refereeing picked up and penalised this indiscipline. A penalty for hands in the ruck gave Hewitt and Chinnor their first points and offside shortly afterwards, a further three points. In end-to-end play both teams were awarded penalties with each failing to score in the wind.

By half time the packs were playing level and the Chinnor backs were continually making crunching tackles but Maidenhead were justifiably 6 ? 14 ahead.

The second half started with a bang and a clean fast ball travelling down the line, drawing and neutralizing opposite numbers. But, with Tom Grellier coming into the line from full back and delivering the final ball, James Ward went over the line. He sensibly tried to improve the kicking position but was caught, and did well to ground the ball. Kicking had been difficult for both sides throughout the game with gusts of wind across the pitch and the conversion was missed for a score of 11 ? 14.

Rob French, on for the second half (having landed from Oz on Friday), flew in the lineout; Dan John covered every blade of grass and Peter Elson also on, started to drive out of the scrum.

Then Harry Hillier set off on a darting run getting closer and closer. He stepped back off his right foot to open the angle and his chasing defensive tackler rolled across his back and between him and the corner flag as he grounded the ball. The referee and linesman, who were within feet of the play called the try good and the score moved to 16-14. The winds again took the ball from the conversion, but for the first time Chinnor were ahead by 2 points.

Maidenhead came back with the power of a wounded animal, and heroic tackles were required. Hillier standing up to the rampaging number eight and whilst being flattened he never let go and slowed him for the cover to arrive, Matt Edmunds taking an advancing forward to the ground in a black belt beauty. However they kept coming and eventually drove over to score but a poor kick made the score 16 ? 21 with just 6 minutes remaining.

Back came Chinnor driving and forcing yet more illegal Maidenhead play and Hewitt took the brave decision to take the three points. This left Chinnor just 2 points behind and 4 minutes to play. Almost from the restart the ball came back to Hewitt from loose play and a strong kick was called for to gain position, but no; as the ball set off from the half line it became clear that he had gone for the drop. Not high and handsom but low and avoiding the wind, and with the ball and spectators running out of breath, it crept over the posts like a car running out of petrol. But it made it and Chinnor won 22 ? 21.

A spectacular recovery by an excellent squad and superb use of substitutions by coach Richard John.
Brilliantly support by friends, families, club players from other teams and club members. Your support made a difference!

Squad:

Ian Stock; Jason Lang; Ed Devine (Rupert Enticknap 55); Dan Cuadrado (Rob French 35); Dan John; Josh Kirby (Peter Elson); Max Williams(Johnny Nicholls); Pip Seymour; Guy Hackshaw; Harry Hillier; James Hewitt (Capt); Dan Issac(Matt Edmans 60); Jamie Hiscock; James Ward; Tom Grellier

Ben Bishop
James Messenger
Russell Johnson
Morgan Thompson
Adam White

Posted by Nick Stock