After last week’s defeat to table topping Chingford, Chiltern came out on top against an impressive Ruislip side whose play was significantly better than their league table place would indicate.

Chiltern attacked from the outset and after several productive drives towards the Ruislip try line a spilled pass was all that prevented the first try of the game. However Ruislip had infringed offside so Stuart Pearham stepped up to kick the resulting penalty. Both sides were attacking with intent but Chiltern’s defence was the stronger of the two and it was no surprise when they gained turn over ball from a Ruislip knock on and with an excellent referee playing advantage, Jack Kenyon scooped up the ball from the floor brilliantly and ran in from 45m for Chiltern’s first try which was converted by Pearham. With the defences on top the only other score of the first half was another well taken penalty by Pearham taking Chiltern into half-time with a 13–0 advantage.

Chiltern were fielding yet more debutants after last week’s injuries and with new prop Peiotr Balacenko unfortunately pulling a calf muscle in the warmup it meant that yet another debutant, Dayne Matthews, ended up playing the whole match which at the tender age of 39 was a magnificent feat!

Chiltern were quickly into their stride at the beginning of the second half and having completely disrupted a Ruislip scrum, a lack of concentration allowed Ruislip to run the ball out of their own 22 and after some excellent inter passing their elusive outside half touched down for their first try which he also converted. Chiltern’s lead was further reduced when Ruislip converted a penalty making the score 13–10 which was hardly a reflection on the amount of possession and attacking play that Chiltern had demonstrated.

The score clearly galvanised them and from the kick off they moved the ball quickly to the outside channels where Jack Kenyon ran beautifully to outflank the Ruislip defence and when a try seemed certain he was brilliantly tackled a metre short of the line. However Chiltern were first to the breakdown and securing possession a pop pass saw number eight Jordan Scott dive over the line for a try that was converted by Pearham. Chiltern were now comfortably in control with their outstanding front row combination of Seymour, Rogers and Matthews making significant inroads into the Ruislip defence. After a further period of pressure Chiltern were held up just short of the line but in doing so knocked the ball on. However from the resulting 5m scrum and as the Ruislip scrum-half was about to pass the ball to his number 10, Stuart Pearham nipped in to cheekily snaffle the ball from his grasp and dived over the line under the posts for Chiltern’s third try which he also converted to take Chiltern into a 27–10 lead.

With a matter of minutes remaining a missed tackle left a gap which was well exploited by the Ruislip backs and led to their second try which was duly converted, 27-17.

There was sufficient time for Chiltern to get back into the Ruislip 22 and only some brave defence kept them from scoring another try which would have given them a bonus point.

Whilst there was some disappointment that the boys had not managed to convert their possession into a bonus point victory it was good to get back to winning ways after last week’s disappointment. Chiltern remain third in the table and indeed a gap is now developing between the top four and the remainder of the clubs in the league.

As with every home game the man of the match for each team was selected but in a unique move it was decided that the whole Chiltern front row should receive the award which was hugely merited.

Next week the boys make the short journey to Watford to play Fullerians, the side of course coached for the last two years by Chiltern’s now head coach Dave Neale!!

As with Ruislip, Fullerians are sitting in mid-table but have achieved some excellent results and playing away will be a big ask for a Chiltern side still missing so many of their front line players.

Kick off is at 2:30 PM and after the magnificent support from the touchline yesterday the boys would welcome a similar number of spectators next week.

CJOC