Chiltern lose by a point to last-gasp penalty

The game was played in atrocious conditions and Chiltern initially made the mistake of trying to play their normal expansive game, relying on their fast-running backs to carve holes in the defence, as they had in the previous week’s game. The 60 mph gusts of wind, heavy squally showers and the rather overlong grass on the pitch conspired to reduce the impact of this method of play and a sturdy defence from the home side comfortably kept the home side at bay. In the line-outs, the strength of the wind also forced Chiltern to throw all their balls to the front jumper, which, though well taken for the most part, meant that it took longer to travel the distance to the backs and therefore gave the defence a longer time to organise. All in all, Old Centralians did play the conditions slightly better. Long clearance kicks when playing with the wind in the second half constantly put Chiltern under pressure, just when they looked to be in a scoring position, whereas the visitors were guilty of some ill-directed kicks during the game, the ball often going into touch on the full, or directly into the arms of a defender.

Chiltern, with the wind, started the game strongly and after 5 minutes, sustained pressure resulted in a penalty to them near to the home side’s 22, converted by Matt Gilbert for a 0-3 lead. Then after 17 minutes, a lineout on the home side’s 5 metre line on the left was taken cleanly. A forward drive and quickly re-cycled ball was fed along the line to Matt Gilbert at outside centre who sprinted over for the try and converted it himself. Chiltern then lead 0-10, but, though they did not know it at the time, that was as good as it got. From the restart, with the ball hanging for a long time in the wind, Chiltern unwisely decided to try to run it out of defence. An intended long pass to the left wing resulted only in an interception by the home side’s centre, showing a good turn of pace to outstrip the struggling defence to score in the corner. The conversion into the teeth of the gale was unsurprisingly missed, but this reduced the score to 5 – 10 where it remained until half time.

The second half was all about strong defending on both sides. An injury to hooker, Paddy Esson, resulted in Chiltern having to field three props in the front row, but neither side really had any clear advantage in the set pieces. Old Centralians forced a penalty on the half hour which was converted to take the score to 8 – 10 and it was then a long clearance kick, following a period of Chiltern pressure, only two minutes from time that forced the visitors to give away the crucial penalty. Well struck under the circumstances, the conversion gave Old Centralians the lead for the first time at 11-10. Chiltern then threw everything into attack and were rewarded by a penalty themselves on the right hand side between the halfway line and the 22. Sadly for the visitors, Gilbert’s attempt at the conversion went wide, so the full time whistle went with Old Centralians just about deserving their win 11-10.

Next week Amersham & Chiltern host Newton Abbot at home, kick – off 2.15 pm.

Chiltern’s Annual Bonfire Night and Firework Display will take place at the club next Friday 8th Nov. All welcome.