Chinnor in 10-try thriller

CHINNOR RFC had a dream start to its match against Redruth on Saturday (10/10), despite its squad being depleted by 20+ players unavailable through injury and other commitments.

Saturday’s Man of the Match, Robbie Martey

From the kick off, their forwards drove Redruth back. Junior Fatialofa made a 20 metre break and from the resulting ruck Robbie Martey sped through a gap to give Chinnor a five-point lead. Redruth replied immediately with a penalty converted by fly half Mankee.

Chinnor bounced back with a Jack Adams break, feeding the elusive Martey who split the Redruth defence with his dazzling pace to put full back, Bertie Hopkin over and convert his own try.

Redruth began to tighten up the game, keeping the ball among their forwards and driving into Chinnor’s 22 metre area enabling lock, Hattam and hooker Cowan – Dickie to score two tries within five minutes of each other. Mankee converted one of these to give Redruth a 13 – 12 lead after 20 minutes.

Again Chinnor responded with centres Fatialofa and Adams combining well to break the gain line and put winger, George Blewitt, over for an unconverted try. Then the lead switched back to Redruth when a counter attack found a weakness in Chinnor’s defence putting centre Parsons over for a try converted by Mankee.

The second half saw Redruth maintaining their tactic of keeping the ball tight among their forwards, then flanker Buzza drove from a loose maul and broke through Chinnor’s defence to score under the posts. Mankee converted for a 29 to 17 lead. The Chinnor pack responded well, following long kicks into the Redruth half and driving into the opposition’s pack, sucking them in, then spinning the ball out quickly for winger Blewitt to score in the corner. Then fly half Will Millett touched down near the posts for Hopkin to convert and draw the score level at 29 – 29.

Redruth came back in a similar fashion with a deep kick to the corner and a rolling maul from the lineout giving hooker, Cowan-Dickie his second try, unconverted, with 15 minutes left and a 34 – 29 lead.

Replacement Sam Angel kept Chinnor in the game with deep kicks into Redruth’s territory, followed by forward pressure giving Chinnor a penalty converted by Hopkin. In the last eight minutes Chinnor forwards were camped in Redruth’s 22 metre area but were unable to penetrate their defence and so suffered a 34 to 32 defeat.

All Chinnor tries were scored by the backs including man of the match, Robbie Martey, whereas Redruth’s tries were mostly scored by their forwards reflecting the different tactics of the teams. At least Chinnor came away with two bonus points to help their cause.