No Christmas cheer for Chiltern in Bristol

A strong gusty wind blew end to end and Chiltern played much like they did against Old Centralians in similar conditions earlier in the season, when they also lost by one point in the final minute. In fairness, Chiltern were forced to field a much changed side seemingly through their injury jinx. Winger, Tim Lloyd and centre, Tom Shiels, were injured during last week’s fine win over Weston-super-Mare. Fly-half and kicker, Matt Gilbert then succumbed to a leg injury in training mid-week and to compound the team’s problems, winger, Steve Scopes injured his knee during the pre-match warm-up and second row, Toby Hunt was forced off with a back injury after only twenty minutes. The much rearranged team then made far too many mistakes during the match, with wild passes being whipped away by the wind and poorly directed kicks giving away possession needlessly.

Avonmouth played with the wind in the first half and soon put the visitors under pressure. With only two minutes gone, however, a good turn-over ball in the Chiltern 22 was passed out to winger, Sam Portland. The in-form winger took off at pace and his kick ahead was held up in the wind long enough for him to re-gather and completely outpace the defence for a great individual try under the posts, converted by Rob Smalley and for a 0 - 7 lead. The home side came back strongly, however, using the wind to pin the visitors in their own half. A lineout on the right was won and the ball moved left. After a period of sustained pressure and several phases, the home side finally forced their way over for a try by their back row. The conversion was missed, so the score remained at 5 – 7, where by means of some great defending by the visitors, it stood until the half-time whistle was blown.

Now playing with the wind, Chiltern should have expected to put this game away comfortably. After 5 minutes of the restart, however, Avon converted a penalty in front of the posts to take the lead for the first time at 8 – 7. A sustained period of pressure by Chiltern then followed, for once using the wind well and, after several phases of play it was Portland again that found the touch-down for his second try of the afternoon. The conversion was missed by Smalley, but the visitors retook the lead at 8 – 12. The game then swung backwards and forwards, with Chiltern making some concerted attacks, only to give away possession and then found themselves having to defend desperately in their own half. Despite the home side throwing everything at them, it looked like Chiltern was going to hang on for the win, but with the seconds ticking away in injury time, a lineout was won by the host team on the Chiltern 22. With Chiltern’s second-row, Lodewijk Gielens knocked cold and lying on the ground, the hosts moved the ball to the right and then back inside and a rare defensive error in the centre allowed the hosts hooker to drive over the line for the try. The conversion was missed, but the final whistle then was blown immediately to give the home side a narrow victory 13-12.
This was the last league game until 4th January 2014, but next Saturday Chiltern host’s Buckingham in a cup game, kick-off 2pm, free entry.