21/02/11….Final minute bonus point victory against Weston; again!

AS injuries pile high, Chinnor 1st XV dug deep to win a nail-biting contest against Weston-Super-Mare with a bonus point try in the dying minutes on Saturday.

Chinnor 1st XV went into this game wondering if there was more bad news to come after last week?s serious injuries to Cathcart and Serrano. Jason Bowers brought Harry Hillier into the team for his first start for the 1st XV for many months and moved his backs around to cover the gaps created as a result.

In the last meeting between these two sides, Chinnor won the game with a last minute (somewhat disputed by Weston supporters) try. It was expected that this again could be a close game.

Chinnor?s start could not have been better. From the kickoff, Matt Goode launched the ball into the heart of the Weston defence and pressure from the forwards released Ricky Hopwood to pass along the back line for Harry Hillier to touch down in the far left corner for an unconverted try after only two minutes.

Weston returned the compliment a few minutes later when pressure on the Chinnor line paid off with Paul Sprague touching down. Neither of these two tries was converted; which for once was not due to the infamous Chinnor wind as the game was played in pretty near perfect conditions.

The rest of the first half was a pretty dour affair with the forwards tending to dominate the game by locking up the ball and trying to control the run of play. Chinnor players became increasingly frustrated with around the fringe antics by Weston that were not seen by the referee. This eventually led to Joe Pickett spending 10 minutes after his frustration boiled over.

During this time, Chinnor clung on with fantastic spirit through a mixture of dogged determination, a small amount of good luck and poor decision-making by Weston. A number of times Weston could have capitalised on the extra man by running the ball wide, but chose to use their forwards.

Joe Pickett returned and a few minutes later, Sprague was over the line again after a period of pressure on the Chinnor line. His try was converted. 5 ? 12.

The influential Sprague crossed over again in the 55th minute for his 3rd try which was converted. Chinnor were now looking down a barrel of a very long gun as 5 ? 19 looked way too big of a hill to climb.

Then a series of player changes for Chinnor seemed to revitalise the team; Ed Vickers, Ed Devine & Andy Berry all came on within a few minutes of each other. Positional changes were needed with Joe Winpenny moving to hooker after Alan Cawston left the field injured and Adam Hastings moving into the backs after Harry Hillier was substituted.

It was Hastings with his direct Route 101 approach that burst through to touchdown after a period of pressure by the forwards and backs combining in a way that had been missing since the first few minutes of the game. 10 ? 19 and all of sudden a losing bonus point was looking possible with 21 minutes to go.

Crucially, the referee determined that Weston?s Sam Waterman had killed the ball once too often and he was sent to the bin with 15 minutes remaining. If ever Chinnor had an opportunity to claw back something from this game now was surely the time!

With the backs awoken from their earlier slumbers, Chinnor decided to throw the ball around and together with great combinations with the Chinnor forwards 2 sparkling tries by Harry Jackman and Pip Seymour took Chinnor into a 1 point lead with 3 minutes to go.

Now Chinnor were running the ball so confidently with Seymour having another couple of chances to cement the victory. One where he didn?t realise he was facing a forward and one pass that didn?t go to hand.

The young guns in the team played their part in this great win with Ricky Hopwood marshalling the plays from the base of the scrum/ruck/maul.

This was a game that Chinnor needed to win and they did, just! Injuries have been mounting for some time and this victory will ensure the confidence is high for the upcoming Oxfordshire Cup game against Henley on 1st March.

SOURCE: Contributed