Chiltern come up short in the thunder and lightning at Lydney

Following the trauma of fly-half Ross Bugden last week, further backs Chris Jack, Matt Gilbert and Steve Scopes all succumbed to injuries in the week. Their stand-ins acquitted themselves well however, although it took a little while for them to get their understanding of each other together. It was good to see another ex-colt Michael Brothers make his debut.

Lydney were only just relegated from National 2 last year and have most of their team still available. Their organisation was evident as they ran in three converted tries in 15 minutes before Chiltern had really woken up. 21-0 down and it looked as if it was going to be a very long afternoon.

However, this team is made of stern stuff and stormed back at Lydney making drive after drive and forcing errors from the home side. At this point the heavens opened and we had the most unbelievable thunderstorm when the players should probably have been taken from the pitch. The rain continued unabated until 10 minutes before the end of the match which made playing sensible rugby very difficult.

Shortly after the storm started, a great up-and-under was chased down by Dan Newlands playing out of position on the wing and from the resulting loose ball Rhys Keith picked up and ran in for a try converted by Jack Kenyon. 10 minutes later more pressure saw Lydney concede a penalty neatly converted by Kenyon. A late penalty saw Lydney go into half time 24-10 ahead.

The second half was a bit of a lottery with Lydney scoring again after a forward pass but then a mass bout of handbags unfortunately saw a Lydney player given a yellow card but Garret Doman-Cann a red card. The Lydney committee was of the opinion that two yellows were more appropriate but that wasn’t how the referee saw it and he was closer than any of the spectators. Clearly that made it a long last 15 minutes for Chiltern but they stuck to the task only conceding one more try before ending the game knocking the ball on under the Lydney posts with a minute to go.

Overall, Lydney was the better side but we were very proud of the attitude and commitment of the whole squad.

Match Report by Charles Owen-Conway