Rugby: Basement boys make Chinnor sweat it out

From the archive, first published Tuesday 10th Jan 2006.

South West 1: Chinnor survived a strong Cheltenham finish to claim a 29-18 victory at the league's bottom club.

The hosts were playing with an authority which belied their position and only a strong defence, well marshalled by Darren Oxley and Matt Buckley, kept them out.

Chinnor were not helped during this by a poorly-functioning lineout and the sin-binning of debutant flanker Henry Gurney.

With Paul Hennessy absent, Jon Brooks switched to No 8.

Chinnor full back James Hewitt opened the scoring with a penalty, which was cancelled out by Cheltenham's Mudway.

The referee awarded Chinnor a penalty try after a deliberate scrum collapse, but Cheltenham hit back following a driving maul.

Chinnor scored the try of the game when centre Sam Soane burst through the middle and found winger Eric Brown with an excellent long pass.

A textbook move from the back of the scrum involving Brooks, Danny Burns and Soane created a try for winger Rewi Tolich.

Cheltenham started the second half on a roll as Mudway kicked a penalty and converted his own try.

Brooks steadied the ship for Chinnor, forcing himself over from the back of a scrum and Hewitt converted for 29-18.

The rest of the game belonged to Cheltenham, but they could not breach the Chinnor defence.

Oxford Harlequins paid the price for not taking their chances as they lost 20-5 at Maidenhead.

Centre Charlie Mawle was the first culprit on 12 minutes, delaying his pass when presented with a two-man overlap.

Maidenhead saw flanker Vorster yellow-carded two minutes later, but still scored a try through No 8 Morgan.

Left wing Elio Recchia could not hold a potential scoring pass, but scrum half Anthony Cope and fly half Chris Cooper kept the play moving forward.

Quins found more gaps after the break, but could not score until Maidenhead full back Mackay made it 10-0.

A superb forwards effort was finished off by flanker Alisdair Craddock on 44 minutes.

Just when Quins looked like levelling, Maidenhead fly half Ruddick snapped up a wild Recchia pass to score in the corner.

He converted this and a 76th minute penalty to seal the match.

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