Clifton click to spoil Chinnor’s title chances

AFTER their previous outing, Chinnor RFC made a number of changes against Canterbury on Saturday (25/03), with Nathan Hannay returning to the second row, Connor Adams coming in for his debut at Nine, Junior Fatialofa at inside centre and Henry Lamont at outside centre. Luke Hibbard started on the left wing with Charlie Broughton on the right wing.

Chinnor dominated the first 10 minutes with scything runs from Burns and Pineaar taking play to the Clifton try line where a dropped pass prevented a score. Clifton’s clearance kicks relieved the pressure and enabled them to counterattack with their backs giving winger Sharp an overlap to round Chinnor’s defence and score near the post. Fly half Newey converted for a 7 – 0 lead.

This gave Clifton the confidence to run with the ball and keep the pressure in the Chinnor half with their forwards driving at the Chinnor line. Hannay was then yellow carded and from the resulting penalty and driving maul, prop Alex Giltrow grounded the ball for Clifton’s second try converted by Newey.

Five minutes later Chinnor had a second yellow card with Burns sent to the sin bin for a late tackle, leaving them with 13 players to finish the half. Chinnor responded well with probing runs from Bentley, Fatialofa and Lamont but the Clifton defence held out until half time.

Chinnor were now playing with the wind and kicked deep into Clifton territory. Full back Ian Clark caught the ball in his own 22 metre area and went on a swerving run to the half way. From the resulting loose scrum he did another penetrating venture through the Chinnor defence to put centre Sam Harrison away to score under the posts after just 3 minutes of the second half. Newey converted for a 21 – 0 lead.

With Chinnor now back to 15 players, they were into an attacking rhythm and following nine phases of play Jonny Bentley cut through a gap to score and convert his own try. A revitalised Chinnor took play back to Clifton’s try line where various forward interchanges put hooker Koree Britton over for an unconverted try.

Clifton’s attacks were annulled by replacement full back, Strang who kicked well to take play back into Clifton’s half. Clifton realised that the running game played to their strengths and soon full back Clark broke through a tackle to feed centre Malcolm Peacock who scored an unconverted try.

Driving runs by Tom Burns and Ben Manning took the game to the Clifton try line where their players were sucked into the loose scrum and a quick blind side pass put Jonny Bentley over in the corner to score an unconverted try and a score of 26 – 17.

With minutes to go, Chinnor were piling on the pressure to score a try worth 2 bonus points when they were awarded a penalty, which if converted would give Chinnor a losing bonus point. Chinnor opted to run the ball and no bonus points were achieved as the Clifton winger, Pomphrey intercepted a try scoring pass on his own line to run the length of the field to score the final try of the game converted by Newey giving Clifton a well-deserved 33 – 17 victory; their best display of the season according to their supporters. Chinnor now aim for a place in the playoffs to achieve promotion.

TEAMS:
Clifton
Clark, Pomphrey, Peacock, Harrison, Sharpe, Newey, Spencer, Bullimore, Wheeler, Giltrow, Hawkins, Uren, Luckwell, Woodward,Chesters
Interchanges: Vaughan, Edwards, Renwick, Luxton, Barnes

Chinnor
Kieran Goss, Luke Hibberd, Henry Lamont, Junior Fatialofa, Charlie Broughton, Jonny Bentley, Connor Adams, Joe Hutchinson, Koree Britton, Jay Tyack, Nathan Hannay, CJ Osazuwa, Ben Pienaar ©, Alex Bradley, Tom Burns

Interchanges: Tom Price, Jamie Townsend, Ben Manning, Ali Bone, Basil Strang

SCORERS:
Clifton
Tries (time): Sharp 13, Giltrow 29,Harrison 41, Peacock 65, Pomphrey 80
Conversions (time): Newey 14, 30, 66, 80
Penalty Goals (time):

Chinnor
Tries (time): Bentley 46, 77 Britton 53
Conversions (time): Bentley 47
Penalty Goals (time):
Referee: Lius Caviglia
Attendance: 163
Half time score: 14-0
Full time score: 33-17
Star man: Mike Uren – Clifton