September 4, 2026
Tonight was a historic night for Chinnor as Leicester Tigers became the first ever side from the Premiership to visit or even play against Chinnor. Last season’s 5th place in the Champ made Chinnor the 15th best side in England but even a friendly again Leicester, who finished 4th in the regular Premiership table before losing a play-off semi-final at Northampton, would normally be a tough ask.
Whilst all of Leicester’s current internationals would be on enforced rest due to their participation in the summer’s Nations Championship matches, the RFU had unexpectedly scheduled the start of the Prem Cup much earlier than expected, resulting in Leicester also having a Prem Cup match at Harlequins tomorrow, so it was uncertain how strong a side would take to the field for the Tigers tonight, or if there would be any past or future internationals to be added to the list of players who had graced the Chinnor pitch and then went on to play international rugby. Members of this club currently included Ellis Genge, Eliot Millar-Mills, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Joe Marlar, Ross Moriarty, Ben Vellacott, Billy Burns, George Furbank, Max Malins and Matt Gallagher !
Leicester Tigers
Leicester are the most successful side in English club rugby history, and are one of only three sides to have played every season in the top division since leagues were introduced in 1987/88, the other two being Bath and Gloucester. In that time Tigers had won the title on 11 occasions and finished runners-up on another 8 occasions.
In addition, the European Heineken Cup was won in consecutive seasons, beating Stade Francais 34-30 in 2001 and Munster 15-9 in 2002, whilst Leicester were runners-up in 1997, 2007 and 2009.
Between 1979 and 1997, Leicester won the RFU Knockout Cup ( John Player & Pilkington Cups ) 5 times, and were runners-up 5 times between 1978 and 1996.
Other titles included winning the Anglo-Welsh Cup three times ( 2007, 2012 and 2017 ), and last season the Prem Cup was won for the first time, thrashing Exeter Chiefs 66-14 in the final.
Naturally Leicester had provided an impressive list of players for the British Lions, including Martin Johnson, Neil Back, Peter Wheeler, Clive Woodward, Rory Underwood, Dean Richards, Austin Healey, Graham Rowntree, Dan Cole, Martin Corry, Dusty Hare, Paul Dodge, Ollie Chessum, Ben Youngs, Manu Tuilagi and current club coach Geoff Parling.
Notable England internationals numbered Les Cusworth, Will Greenwood, Tony Underwood, Nick Youngs, Richard Cockerill, Lewis Moody, Ben Kay, George Ford, Ellis Genge, Tom Youngs, Freddie Steward, Dorian West and Jack van Poortvliet.
Wikipedia showed that 181 players had represented their country whilst a Leicester player, spread as far and wide as Argentina, Italy, South Africa, Australia, France, Fiji, USA, Samoa, Tonga, Canada Georgia and even Sweden !
Home is the 25,849 capacity Welford Road, the largest club rugby club ground in England, except for when sides play showcase games at stadiums such as Twickenham or Cardiff, or football stadiums eg Tottenham, Aston Villa, Newcastle etc.
Watching Leicester Tigers
Fatbear has seen Leicester play on one previous occasion, in December 1996 when they travelled to The Stoop to play Harlequins in a league game. Quins were third in the table, but league leaders Leicester won 34-18. This was before the Tigers suffix had been added to their name but the home side were officially NEC Harlequins at the time !
The internationals in the Leicester side that day were Rory Underwood, who scored two tries, Martin Johnson, Neil Back, Graham Rowntree and Irish fly-half Niall Malone. Dean Richards was listed in the programme as being in the side but was replaced before kick-off. Also in the side were Austin Healey, Will Greenwood, Richard Cockerill and Darren Garforth who would go on to become full internationals.
The Harlequins line-up included England Internationals Will Carling & Jason Leonard, Irish hooker Keith Wood, French forwards Laurent Benezech and Laurent Cabannes and Welsh lock Gareth Llewellyn. Rugby League International Gary Connolly was in the centre whilst another Rugby League cross-over, scrum-half Robbie Paul was amongst the substitutes.
Back in those days, Leicester’s players wore letters rather than numbers on the back of their shirts, with A being the loose-head prop, through to O being the full-back. Interestingly, the Tigers were wearing letters tonight but they were not easy to read !
Chinnor Update
So far Chinnor had announced the retention of 22 players from last season including 6 of the front-row and lock Jamie Campbell, who ruled the line-outs last season. There was no news so far on Kieran Goss, Willie Ryan, Freddie Owsley, George Stokes and Cameron Rafferty, but the only departures in the public domain were three fringe/reserve players joining London Scottish.
New signings included fly-half/full-back Richie Simpson from Ealing Trailfinders, who had impressed in his one game on loan at Chinnor last season. Ex-Coventry Australian fly-half Liam Richman had signed after a year playing in Italy, full-back Jack Metcalf was playing in France for Rouen last season having previously played for Sale, Ealing, Doncaster and Newcastle, whilst veteran Samoan prop James Johnston ( 16 caps ) had joined from Ampthill.
Highly-rated lock forward Harry Gilson-Fox had moved from Rotherham, centre George Wacokecoke ended the season at Camborne after having previously been with Doncaster, full-back Ben Currie joined from Cambridge, and South Africa back-row forward Josh Du Toit had played for False Bay.
Off the field, another a covered terrace stand had been installed on one half of the far side of the ground to provide additional protection should it start raining.
Chinnor and Leicester Connections
The current Leicester squad actually includes two ex-Chinnor players. Welsh winger Ryan Crowley made 13 appearances in between RAF commitments before signing for Leicester last autumn where he made 7 appearances in the Prem Cup, scoring two tries.
Hooker Theo Theobald-Thomas played 5 games for Chinnor on loan from Gloucester in 2022/23 after being made redundant following the demise of Worcester Warriors. He then made a further 8 appearances for Chinnor on loan from Leicester in the 2023/24 season. To-date, Theobald Thomas had made 30 appearances for the Tigers, including 16 last season.
Winger Tom Varndell started in the minis and juniors at Chinnor before moving on to make his name at Leicester, Wasps and Bristol and winning 4 England caps.
Lock/back-row forward Scott Hall began his career at Chinnor, making one appearance in 2016 before going to Nottingham University. Whilst playing for Nottingham, Hall made two loan appearances for Leicester as cover for Prem Cup matches, and returned to Chinnor in 2024.
Back-row forward Fred Tuilagi made 8 appearances for Leicester in Premiership Cup matches, played 26 matches for Chinnor in 2021/22, and now plays for Bedford Blues.
In recent years, three Tigers had enjoyed loan spells at Chinnor. Flanker Monty Loggenberg made two substitute appearances for Chinnor last season on loan from Leicester but has now joined French Pro D2 side Beziers.
Prop Tim Hoyt made 6 appearances on loan from Leicester in 2024/25 before moving on to Worcester Warriors and becoming a full international for Fiji. In the summer, Hoyt joined French Top 14 side Lyon.
Winger Joe Browning played 7 times for Chinnor in two loan spells between 2023 to 2024, scoring 7 scintillating tries during his time at the club.
Kingsey Road would not have been a new experience for a handful of the Tigers squad though. Locks Finn Carduff, Osian Thomas and Tom Manz plus props Archie van der Flier and Ale Loman played here whilst loaned out to Nottingham in 2025 and suffered a 12-41 defeat, whilst scrum-half Tom Whiteley played for Bishop’s Stortford back in 2015 !
Four Leicester Academy players were in the England Under 18s side that were battered by the French Under 18s at Chinnor in March, namely prop Kwame Bekoe, lock Fin Charles, and back-row forwards Seva Batikora and Henry Johnson.
Matchday Information
According to AA route planner, the journey from Leicester to Thame is 89 miles and should normally take one hour 40 minutes.
The weather at the 19.45 kick-off was dry and 17 degrees and the infamous Chinnor breeze was absent.
Tickets for the game were £20 for adults, £18 for concessions, £10 for full-time students, £5 for 10-16-year olds, whilst under 10s were allowed in free. All tickets were sold a day before the match.
Disappointingly, the Leicester side this evening consisted of Senior and Junior Academy players, and a few others not even listed on their website. Their captain was flanker Dylan Chessum, presumably the younger brother of Lewis and Ollie, and the Under 18 internationals Charles and Bekoe were paired as the locks, and prop Batikora was amongst the substitutes. Cameron Rafferty was also named on the bench, presumably the same player who made 29 appearances for Chinnor over the past two seasons ?
Chinnor named 13 substitutes so a lot of second half changes would be expected, but there were starts for Johnston, Du Toit, Richman, Metcalf and Simpson, and powerful centre Morgan Passman was surprisingly starting at Number 8.
Leicester were playing in their traditional green, white and red hooped shirts, with white shorts and black socks. Chinnor were in their usual black and white hoops, with black shorts and socks.
Match Report
Fear that this was going to be mis-match were quickly realised as Chinnor wing Grant Hughes crossed three times in the opening 15 minutes as Chinnor took a 17-0 lead.
Chinnor were simply too big, too strong, too fast and too good, and the opening try was a sign of things to come as the Tigers scrum was pushed off their ball, and after a couple of drives were halted a long pass enabled Hughes to canter over in the corner. 5-0 after 3 minutes.
The second try came from a failure to intercept a risky long pass to winger Metcalf, who raced down the touchline but was tackled short of the try-line. Chinnor recycled possession, put the ball through a number of hands with Hughes having to do a lot more work this time, but barged over. Again, a difficult conversion was missed so it was 10-0 with 8 minutes played.
Tigers had a brief spell of possession but were making little impression on the home defence but were eventually able to force a penalty, which was kicked into the Chinnor 22. Although Tigers won their line-out, Chinnor were able to win turnover ball, and Metcalf made a break and then kicked to the Leicester 22, but a covering defender cleared to touch. Tigers actually stole the Chinnor line-out but the Chinnor pack won a turnover, enabling scrum-half Callum Pascoe to make a break from the ruck and after being tackled, the ball went through a number of hands to give Hughes an overlap score in the corner. This time Richman was successful from the tee, taking the score to 17-0 with 16 minutes on the clock.
There was another brief spell of play inside the Chinnor 22 when the home side were caught offside from the clearing kick after the restart, and the line-out was thrown long which Leicester were able to gather but the drive from prop Ben Beere was halted and Chinnor forced a penalty.
Conor Brockschmidt won the subsequent line-out for Chinnor and Passman made a trademark break, running half the length of the field with defenders bouncing off him before being illegally stopped. The penalty was kicked to 5 metres, and Campbell won the line-out leading to the pack rumbling over the tryline. Passman was credited with the try, and after another missed conversion the score moved to 22-0 after 21 minutes.
The Tigers pack continued to go backwards at a rate of knots but scrum-half James Townsend was getting adept at quickly getting the ball away from the base of the scrum but on this occasion his run was ended by a tackle by Metcalf, who then showed the greater strength to rip the ball away from the Tigers scrum-half.
However, Townsend was powerless at the next scrum as Chinnor pushed the visitors’ pack off the ball and after the ball was spread wide, Simpson scorched down the touchline to score in the corner. Another difficult conversion slipped wide so the score was now 27-0 after 26 minutes.
A period of scrappy play followed until the referee stopped play due to an injury to Leicester lock Charles, who had to leave the field and be replaced. The game resumed with a scrum to Tigers, which was steady this time.
A promising Leicester move was brought to a halt after a pass that was only about 5 metres forward. After the Chinnor scrum, Richman chipped ahead but the ball hilariously bounced wickedly away from both the chasing attackers and defenders. After several knock-ons, Tigers claimed the ball but could only pass straight to Chinnor’s Metcalf who had an easy stroll under the posts. Unfortunately for the home side the referee had spotted at least one of the knock-ons, and disallowed the try and awarded a scrum to Leicester.
Tigers again ran the ball from the scrum but dropped the ball in midfield. The Tigers scrum was again marched back 10 metres, and when Chinnor ran the ball, Metcalf stepped inside from his wing but was tackled short of the tryline. When Chinnor attempted to move from right to left the move ended with a Dambuster pass and a knock-on.
Leicester were able to take play back into the Chinnor 22, but after Campbell won a line-out, Chinnor kicked to touch to end the half.
Tigers must have been given some strong words during the interval as they started the second half on the front foot but were unable to make any impression on the Chinnor defence. They did win a penalty following which some handbags broke-out, but after consulting with his assistant the referee reversed his decision and awarded the penalty to Chinnor.
Brockschmidt won the line-out, Currie made a break but was tackled short of the line. Several drives were stopped until Richman looked up and chipped to the corner for the unmarked James Bourton to catch and flop over the line. Simpson took over the kicking duties and added the extras taking the score to 34-0 with 45 minutes played.
Chinnor nearly scored shortly after the restart but after Campbell charged down an attempted clearing kick inside the Leicester 22, the Chinnor forwards were pinged in their eagerness to get to the loose ball.
The Tigers defenders were now working overtime to prevent further scores, as Will Cave was unable to hold onto an offload from Simpson, and a good run from Tom Watson was ended by a tackle close to the tryline.
A snipping run from substitute scrum-half Luke Carter forced another penalty, which took Chinnor back to 5 metres from the Leicester tryline. Wacokecoke was able to dance over the line after Chinnor spread the ball from the line-out and it was now Nathan Chamberlain’s turned to knock over the conversion. 41-0 after 55 minutes.
Leicester had a half-opening following a chip ahead, but the Tigers player who got to the ball first kicked poorly ahead and the ball went dead, and would have been covered by a Chinnor defender anyway.
Chinnor squandered a good opportunity by infringing at their 5 metres line-out and Tigers worked their way up the field to the Chinnor 22. After Gilson-Fox won Chinnor line-out ball, Chinnor went the length of the field, with Dugmore’s off-load giving Carter a run under the posts. Chamberlain added the easy conversion so Chinnor now lead 48-0 with 65 minutes played.
Another flowing Chinnor move ended with Joe Brock being hauled down short of the line, then Tigers next venture into the Chinnor 22 was thwarted by conceding a penalty at their 5-metre line-out.
There was still time for one more try. Chinnor kicked a penalty into the Leicester 22, and from the lineout, Carter broke but was tackled short of the whitewash. A number of Chinnor forwards barged over the line and the referee awarded the try although it wasn’t clear who the scorer was. Chamberlain again added the extras to give Chinnor a half-century off points. It was 55-0 after 78 minutes.
Chinnor were able to take play back into the Leicester 22, but after messing up a rolling maul from a lineout the referee brought an end to the proceedings.
Leicester deserved huge credit in the first place for agreeing to come to Chinnor, and Fatbear felt a little sorry for them giving the Prem Cup fixture scheduling after this friendly had been agreed. It would have been easy for Leicester to use that as an excuse to cry-off but they fulfilled their commitments and 3,000 spectators, quite a few of them wearing Leicester shirts, got to enjoy a Friday night out watching some rugby.
The Tiger cubs also deserve praise for their commitment during the match and they worked hard to deny Chinnor a number of try scoring chances and to keep the score down. However, Chinnor showed they are a good side, and demonstrated the gulf that exists between Junior Academy sides and The Champ. Sad to say that not one of the Tigers’ players tonight looked capable of being loaned to a Champ side this season, but that is not to say some of them won’t develop into top class or even internationals with a few more years’ experience. Hopefully they will have learnt something from tonight’s game !
Chinnor ( 15 to 1 ) : Simpson – Metcalf, Watson, Bourton, Hughes – Richman, Pascoe – Passman, Cave, Du Toit – Brockschmidt, Campbell – Johnston, Thompson, Rukhadze
Replacements ( 16 to 25 ): Walker, Owen, Hardwick, Gilson-Fox, Dugmore, Wharton, Hall, Carter, Chamberlain, Brock, Wacokecoke, Currie, Smith
Leicester Tigers ( O to A ) : Robinson - Stickings, Milner, Myall, Gordon-Astbury – Talbot, Townsend – Smith, Poyser, Chessum – Bekoe, Charles – Ayiehfor, Longyear, Beere
Replacements ( P to X ) : Hanna, Pybus, Batikora, Rafferty, Brown, James, Cadden, Colbert, Bunch
