Chinnor 2nds beat league leaders Henley (Contributed) 28/01/10

Chinnor 2 XV, 31 Pts Vs Henley 2 XV, 15 points: Saturday, January 23, 2010 – MATCH REPORT

CHINNOR Seconds have added the league leaders, Henley seconds to their list of impressive home game results this season.

Henley has not lost a game this season and Chinnor knew this was going to be a challenge against such a good rugby club with their first team in national two. The moment that the two teams ran onto the pitch you could feel the atmosphere. This game was played between two very good teams at full strength.
Chinnor started the game looking like they were stronger, and it wasn?t long before they were awarded a penalty, which was converted into points by Ben Hewitt in his first game back from injury.
The two teams soon found their rhythm and played very well with Chinnor having the advantage in the forwards. But it was Henley that got the next points with a try against the run of play.

Chinnor once again put Henley under a lot of pressure with them defending the try line and Chinnor just keep driving them back and were rewarded with a well earned try by Ricky Hopwood which was converted by Ben Hewitt and Chinnor took the lead back 10 points to 5. The next twenty minutes of the first half saw Chinnor forwards putting Henley under a lot of pressure, but being the good side they are they managed to stop Chinnor coming away with any more points.

The second half started with a more determined Henley taking the game to Chinnor, and the Chinnor forwards once again dominated at all the set pieces as they had in the first half. Chinnor had lost Pip Seymour at the end of the first half then James Serrano shortly afterwards from the back line. Once again most of the game was played between the two twenty two metre lines exhibiting some real physical rugby from both sides. Chinnor again added the first points of the half with the forwards driving Ben Ramsdale over the try line and Hewitt adding the two extra points.

In the 20th minute Henley caught Chinnor napping and ran in a great try from their own 22-metre line, which they converted. Once again it was game on with the Chinnor?s lead cut down to 17 points to 15. But then Henley lost their prop and with no replacement prop the game was forced into uncontested scrums that benefited Henley. Chinnor forwards had had the upper hand until then. Ben Hewitt added another penalty and hit the bar with another, the game finished 20 points to 15 in Chinnor?s favour and another great win for the team.

Baz Corpe and Jack Green from the colts played the whole game and showed great potential and were a credit to the team.
All nineteen of the Chinnor team had good games with Mowbray and Hewitt standing out, but man of the match goes to this weeks captain Ian Stock who has also returned after a long lay off due to injury.

Walter McGuicken