Revitalised Chiltern undone by controversial referee decisions

Amersham & Chiltern were strengthened by the return of skipper Craig Webb, winger Sam Portland, prop Dan Reilly and utility back James Atkins - and also by new signing, hot-off-the-plane, Aussie centre David Skelton.

Chiltern thoroughly deserved to and should have won this encounter at Weedon Lane, but were thwarted by a few own errors, a controversial penalty try and a final minute and highly disputed decision by the referee not to allow a try.

Chiltern kicked off and immediately put the visitors under tremendous pressure which resulted in a penalty after 15 minutes, converted by David Hughes for a 3-0 lead. Chippenham equalised with a converted penalty soon after, but then followed a period of sustained pressure by Chiltern resulting in a try for centre Craig Webb. The conversion was missed and then Chippenham forced another penalty soon after to make the half-time score 8-6 to Chiltern.

Chippenham had expected a comfortable match and were truly shocked by Chiltern’s spirited first half performance. Their coach’s half-time “hair dryer” had its desired effect and after the break the visitors attacked with vigour and after some good handling and recycling, their scrum-half dummied his way over for a try, converted, to give the visitors the lead at 8-13. Chiltern were down to 14 men at this point after a yellow card.

Ten minutes later, however, a great flowing movement upfield, started by a break by full-back Ashley Wright and carried on by Craig Webb, led to a try for debutant Dave Skelton. Again the conversion was missed, so the scores remained level at 13-13. Then, with Chiltern down again to 14 men after another sin-binning, came the first controversial penalty try awarded at a crucial stage of the match. Following a series of scrums in Chiltern’s 22, both front rows seemed equally culpable as both stood up at the same time, but the referee saw it differently. It was converted, to give the visitors the lead again at 13-20.

Stung by this injustice, Chiltern attacked ferociously from the restart and great support and recycling saw a try for scrum-half, Jim Dye. Again the conversion was missed, so the visitors retained the lead at 18-20. Then came one of the few mistakes made by the newly-formed Chiltern back division all afternoon when the ball went loose in the centre. Fortuitously, it popped up into the arms of the Chippenham centre, who strolled in for a try in the right hand corner. The conversion was missed, but the lead was increased to 18-25. This was reduced soon after by a penalty for Chiltern to narrow it to 21-25.

With minutes remaining, Chiltern threw everything at the opposition, losing possession, then regaining it and after a lovely flowing movement along the backs came the disputed try/no try in the corner that would have won them the game – but disallowed, as the referee adjudged that the ball had rolled forward at touch down, when even some of the opposition players said that they thought that the try had been fairly scored.

Despite the loss, this was a very encouraging performance by Chiltern, who had suffered with some heavy defeats in recent weeks.