Food for thought

No captain, Webby ill. No touch judge. No supporters (there were four of us). Greg Douglas injured in the warm-up, so basically two subs. And to cap it all a referee who can only be described as, well, feminine.

We started brightly, putting the home team under pressure mainly through aggressive defence and very good counter attacking. A try was scored from such an attack when Tim Lloyd made a great run and was only stopped feet from the line but Dave Skelton was there to scoop up the ball and score. Rhys Keith converted for a 0-7 lead.

We continued to press but could not take advantage of the field positions we created. This was due to slow ball from the scrum, no ball from the line-out (malfunctioned all game) and the tendency to lose possession in the tackle. The first half was primarily played in Barnstaple's half but on two of the few occasions they got into Chiltern's half, their right winger Luke Berry converted two difficult penalty kicks to reduce the deficit to 6-7.

Just when it looked like we would reach half time with a slight lead, the lights went out. Two minutes before half time, Jacques Naud yellow carded. On the stoke of half time, Barnstaple were awarded a penalty try, so 13-7 to Barnstaple at half time.

We defended well during the rest of Jacques' absence, only conceding a penalty 16-7. Jacques returns to meet Ross Bugden going the other way, yellow card. Barnstaple get a converted try during Ross' absence, scored by their No.8 James Comber, 23-7. Ross returns but meets Wayne Wilson going the other way. Yes you guessed it he got a yellow card. Barnstaple are awarded a penalty try in Wayne's absence. 30-7. Back to 15 men, we could not stop Barnstaple having the last word with their fourth try scored by Luke Berry to bring his personal tally to 20 points.

Despite what appears to be a heavy defeat there was a lot of positives to take from the game. Our defence was excellent, we looked dangerous in attack, our fitness was good and we never stopped trying to score.

Food for thought
1. The pack needs to get on the scrummage machine and work on the initial hit. I cannot believe we are not good enough or strong enough to cope with packs such as Barnstaple.

2. We can soon work through the line-out problems with practice. It has worked well in other games. However we need to understand what to do when the line-out is not going well and how to overcome the problems this creates. Tom Blackburn threw too long on a number of occasions but no one was anticipating this apart from their No.8 who we made to look a class act (I think I could have looked a class act with the amount of possession and space we gave him).

3. We must maintain possession better. We coughed up too many balls on Saturday.

4. We need to keep 15 players on the pitch. They scored 24 points during the 30+ minutes we were reduced to 14 men.

5. We need to avoid lady referees. I think she was so overcome by the personality and beauty of our team it affected her game.