Rugby: Slow start to the season continues for Chinnor

Chinnor RFC’s poor start to the season continued as Bishops Stortford scored six tries in a convincing 36-20 win at Kingsey Road.

Apart from Hopkins’ third minute penalty for Chinnor, after the visitors were penalised for driving up at the scrum, the first half was all one way traffic for Stortford’s dominant pack. A rolling maul from a penalty for a Chinnor player in front of the kick lead to the first Stortford try from Steve Ball, Gallagher converting for a 7-3 lead after seven minutes. The dose was repeated five minutes later from Gill. A long kick downfield was fumbled in goal by the Chinnor defence allowing Stortford’s Hankin to dive over the defender to ground the ball for a 17-3 lead.

Another rolling maul was pulled down by Chinnor resulting in a yellow card for Darlington and a penalty try for the bonus point. The conversion from Gallagher put the visitors ahead 24-3 at half time.

Shortly after the break, Stortford went further ahead with a try from Neville, converted by Gallagher for a 31-3 lead on 47 minutes. Chinnor came back with tries from Burns and Owen, both from driving mauls after penalty line out drives. Stortford increased their lead when replacement Baxter Wilson easily crashed through the home defence for an easy run to the line in the 77th minute and a 36-13 lead. With the last play of the day, Chinnor’s Goodfellow nipped around the blind side of a scrum for a try. Hopkin’s conversion closed the match out for a 36-20 win to Bishops Stortford.

Chinnor
Marcus Beer, Robbie Martey, George Blewitt Jack Adams, Ricky Hopwood, Bertie Hopkin, Frank Jones, Jamie Townsend, Mark Darlington, Andy Berry, Sam Blewitt Tom Burns, James Tyas (c), Ryan Long, Joe Vandermolen

Interchanges: Loma Kivalu, Michael Owen, Ben Manning, Greg Goodfellow, Junior Fatialofa

Bishops Stortford
Nick Hankin, Mike Gallagher, Sam Winter, Johnny Neville, Jimmy Rea, Tom Coleman, Tom Banks, Rory Young, Declan Caulfield, Sean Edwards, Matt Tomlinson, Hamish Irving, Steve Ball, Richard Gill, Mark McCraith

Interchanges: Tom McCrone, Dave Aldam, Baxter Wilson, Arran Mahoney, Pierfrancesco Dotta

Scorers

Chinnor
Tries (time): Burns (52), Owen (60), Goodfellow (80)
Conversions (time): Hopkin (80)
Penalty goals (time): Hopkin (3)
Drop goals (time):

Bishops Stortford
Tries: (time): Ball (6), Gill (12), Hankin (17), Penalty (32), Neville (46), Wilson (77)
Conversions: (time): Gallagher (7, 33, 47)