October 23, 2021
Round 8 of England’s National League One saw the visit
of Cambridge to Chinnor. The Blood and Sand, as they are known, had a 2-1-3
record so far in the season, starting with three consecutive losses - 28-34 at
home to Rams, 7-25 away at Sale and 26-41 at Cinderford, before beating Moseley
32-7 at home and Blackheath 15-9 away. Their last result was a 22-22 draw at
Caldy.
Cambridge are seen as being a solid mid-table side,
capable of beating the best on a good day, but not expected to be struggling against
relegation. Given both sides have recently drawn at Caldy a close encounter was
likely.
Cambridge and Chinnor first crossed swords in 2014 in
National League Two South after Cambridge had been relegated into the division
and Chinnor promoted into it. In total, there have been 4 meetings at Kingsey
Road with Chinnor being victorious in October 2014 ( 23-19 ), January 2019 (
27-26 ) and November 2019 ( 34-22 ). The only win for Cambridge was in January
2016, when in their promotion season, they won 26-19 in a game in which future
England international George Furbank came off the bench for Cambridge.
In contrast Cambridge have won 2 out of 3 matches they
have hosted, winning 22-14 in 2014/15 and 40-22 in 2015/16, although Chinnor
won 22-20 in 2019/20
The Cambridge squad appears to have been relatively unaffected
by the 18 month cessation of rugby at this level, with 10 of their squad that
featured in one or both of the encounters between the two sides in 2019/20 being
named in their match day squad. In contrast, Chinnor had only three members of
their squad from the last encounter between the two clubs involved today.
Chinnor center Sam Yawayawa appeared against his
former club, whilst the Cambridge starting line-up included prop Harry Morley
and pacy wing Kwaku Asiedu, who both made appearances on loan for Chinnor in
2017 on loan from Coventry ( 4 and 1 game respectively ) and Cambridge Director
of Rugby Richie Williams is a former Chinnor player.
The weather at kick-off was dry but chilly 13 degrees,
and Cambridge got off to a lightning start, with Asiedu breaking through two
weak tackles along the touchline to score in the left hand corner with less
than 2 minutes on the clock. Rayner missed the difficult conversion.
One pattern of the game emerged a few minutes later
when Cambridge won a scrum penalty, which was to become the outcome just about
every scrum in the match.
Chinnor full-back Bourton was tackled in the air by
Asiedu but as he landed on his back rather than his head, the only sanction was
a penalty. The response from Asiedu was to shortly after go on another storming
run where he was tackled just short of the line. The ball was reworked but a kick
to other winger on the touchline was poor and Chinnor were able to defend,
albeit at the cost of a penalty. With the kick to corner for a 5 metre
line-out, Cambridge won possession and hooker Brownlie was pushed over the line
for the second try. Again, the conversion was missed so the score remained
0-10.
At this point it was looking ominous for Chinnor but
they responded with a 5 metre line-out of their own, and this time their hooker,
Van Vuuren was shunted over the line to bring the score back to 5-10 with another
conversion missed.
Chinnor had their tales up and with a penalty
advantage in the Cambridge 22, fly-half Nick Smith kicked high to the corner where
Bourton out-jumped Asiedu and dived over into the corner. He then kicked an
excellent conversion from close to the touch-line to give the home side a 12-10
lead after 22 minutes.
Good pressure from Chinnor forced a penalty in
midfield and Bourton stepped up to kick through the uprights to extend the lead
to 15-10 after 25 minutes. However, Cambridge hit back immediately when full-back
Tarrant burst through the Chinnor defence and then fed wing Henderson who was
stopped just short of the try line. Cambridge were able to re-work the ball,
and centre Matt Hema scythed through the middle to score under posts. Rayner
added the extra to put Cambridge back in the lead again at 15-17.
The end-to-end nature of the first half continued and
after Chinnor won a line-out 10 metres from the Cambridge try-line, they worked
the blindside and Crowley was released to score in the corner. Although another
conversion went wide, Chinnor now led 20-17 after 31 minutes.
Cambridge finished the half strongly. Number 8 Maka
made one bullocking run and Tarrant ran from his own 22 to the Chinnor 22.
Although that move was thwarted, Cambridge kept possession and eventually Hema
sent a grubber kick behind the defensive line for Asiedu to score his second
try of the match and earn the four try bonus point for the visitors. Rayner
missed his third conversion of the match so it was 20-22 at half-time.
Chinnor started the second half brightly and won a
penalty to kick to the corner. However, although they secured the line-out, a
knock-on wasted the chance. The match then fell into a series of scrum penalties
to Cambridge, from which line-outs were won. After winning a penalty from a
line-out near to the Chinnor line, everyone was expecting another kick to the corner,
but Duffin took a quick tap and ran at the dozing defenders. A couple of passes
later, gigantic lock Kieran Frost went over under the posts. Rayner’s
conversion made it 20-29 after 47 minutes.
Chinnor were able to have a spell of pressure in the
Cambridge 22, but although they lost their line-out 8 yards out, a series of drives
resulted in a penalty being awarded. Strangely, Chinnor opted to take the three
points, to which one of the Cambridge players shouted “Cowards !”. However, with
the score back at 23-29 Chinnor were one converted try away from the lead ,but
Cambridge continued to win scrum penalties and the resulting line-outs to
prevent Chinnor from generating any dangerous positions. Eventually, the
Cambridge dominance resulted in a penalty inside the Chinnor 22, which Rayner
kicked to put Cambridge 9 points clear at 23-32 with around 12 minutes left to
play.
Cambridge were strangling the life out of Chinnor,
typified by one crunching tackle on Tuilagi as his attempted to break through. With the penalty count continuing to rise,
Cambridge camped in the Chinnor 22 winding down the clock. Eventually the
referee lost patience after Chinnor gave away another penalty and a yellow card
was shown to the unfortunate Brockschmidt, who was confused as to why he was
the one who had to go, but with the accumulation of offences someone had to
leave the field. Cambridge eventually conceded a penalty of their own for the
line-out throw not being straight and Chinnor wisely opted for a line-out
rather than the scrum.
Although the line-out was won, Chinnor were forced to
run the ball from inside their own in-goal area and after a number of phases
manage to get within 10 metres of the Cambridge line. However, they offended
again at the line-out and the ball was hacked back to the Chinnor 22. Bourton
won the foot race and was able to keep the ball alive. Chinnor again went
through the phases from close to their own line, and after a sustained period play,
the ball was played wide for Scott to race over in the corner to give Chinnor 2
points from the 4 try and a losing bonus points. With a super conversion by
Bourton from the touchline the referee blew his whistle to end the match with
the score 30-32.
Cambridge were deserved winners, and with their scrum dominance, organized defence and dangerous running, the winning margin should have been a lot greater. Chinnor have now lost three of their 5 home matches.
Highlights : https://www.chinnor-rfc.com/videos/trylights--chinnor-30-cambridge-32-172574.html
League table as per englandrugby.com
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