16/01/13……Chinnor Colts overcome High Wycombe in National Plate

MATCH REPORT – National Plate – Monday, January 14, 2013; This was a thrilling, end to end game of rugby between two well matched teams. Both sides scored two tries and had the lead before being pegged back, and for a time it looked as if it could go either way, but Chinnor finished the stronger and the difference in the score line was ultimately down to a conversion and two superbly struck long range penalties from George Grosse.

But this was a real team performance, with everyone giving 110% and playing for each other. Despite having a bunch of lads playing out of position the intensity was maintained throughout and exemplified by a rampaging performance from Connor Green, now returned from exile, and a gutsy second half showing from Rob Gascoyne, his heart throbbing powerfully on his sleeve, as ever.

The weather has been pretty kind to us this season, but this was cold. The forwards soon got warmed up though as they repelled some early Wycombe pressure and although Wycombe drew first blood with an early penalty from that point on Chinnor enjoyed the lion’s share of territory for much of the first half and moved into the lead through a Ross Bunsell try after the ball was fed all the way across the pitch for him to angle his run into the corner. Grosse’s conversion missed by a whisker. Our scrummaging was fantastic all afternoon, and the lads who stepped up to play in the front row with Rory O?Connor (Tomm Evans, Guy Carter and then Rob Gascoyne) deserve great credit for their efforts, and that first try came following a typically powerful scrum on the Wycombe twenty-two. Despite facing a bigger pack I don’t think we lost our own scrum once.

Wycombe went back into the lead following a quick tap penalty that caught us on our heels and things didn’t look good when Guy was forced off with a bang on the head, but Toby came on a did a great job on the back row and George had us back on level terms with the first of his howitzers to take us to 8 ? 8 at the break. More of the same in the second half. George slotted a second penalty to move us back into the lead but Wycombe retook the lead when they finally shoved over after a long spell of pressure virtually on our line. Our heads might have dropped, but we kept playing our rugby, forcing a succession of penalties, and got back into the lead when somehow Lewis burrowed like a mole underneath the Wycombe defence to give George a simple kick for the conversion.

A second long range penalty moved us eight points ahead and although Wycombe gave us a few attacks to repel we closed out the last ten minutes relatively comfortably and indeed looked the more likely to add to our score. There was still time for a moment of farce when a Wycombe player infringed outrageously at the breakdown only for our penalty to be reversed when the referee took a dim view of the cheeky pat on the head the offender got for his troubles. It mattered not though.

SOURCE: Contributed by By Mark Carter