Bitter Pill For Chinnor Seconds (Contributed)

CHINNOR 2nd – Nil Pts vs. Witney 1st – 18 Pts
Date: 11 March 2007 – Away Cup Game – Match report.
CHINNOR Seconds lost to Witney First team in the Oxfordshire Cup Semi final on Sunday. Unfortunately three of the team?s influential players were omitted due to cup rules. The team just didn?t manage to gel as they normally do. It seemed to be a bitter pill to swallow having come off such a great result against Ealing last week. It seems they were still on a high and not as focused on this game as they could have been.
And Witney deserved their win on the day.
It was a very disappointing game of rugby that was more like tag wrestling at times, and not the type of rugby that Chinnor have been involved in this season, with so much going on off the ball in rucks and mauls.
The ref allowed players to be taken out around the rucks which appeared questionable to say the least, and not one yellow card.
The first try for Witney came by the way of a forward pass and when the linesman informed the ref he chose to ignore it and awarded the try, The second try was from a lineout and when the linesman indicated to the ref that the ball was not in straight the try was still awarded. Chinnor was penalised at every scrum and this with a pack that have not had this problem in the last 22 games.
The game turned into bit of a farce, with the ref unwilling to be approached by the Chinnor captain on questioning the reason for the penalties being awarded.
Nothing changed when Ian Stock came off with concussion and thankfully nothing worse, and Tom Whelan was substituted, they still had the same problem. When Chinnor should have been awarded a penalty try for not retreating 10 meters, nothing was done.
Chinnor did make their own mistakes for not taking points from four penalties from in front of the posts.
Chinnor takes their hats off to Witney for the win. Thanks for the game and best wishes for the rest of the season, and the best of luck in the Cup final in two weeks.
A big thank you to all the supporters who travelled to Witney; just a pity it was so disappointing.
Please note that it is not in my nature to comment on the reffing in a game, but I felt duty bound this time.

Walter McGuicken
Second Team Manager