In fact, Chiltern could and, perhaps, should have won against all the odds. Considering the amount of recent rain, the pitch stood up well, but, as the previous week a very strong, gusty wind blew end to end for the duration of the game.

Chiltern commenced playing with the wind behind them, but a highly confident and well organised Lydney side took the game to them from the off and camped in their half for most of the first quarter. The home side were unbowed, however and some solid, at times heroic, tackling kept the visitors at bay throughout this period and when they finally did break out, it was Lydney that gave away a penalty just inside the half way line. Utilising the wind, scrum-half Jack Kenyon hoisted a huge 45 metre kick that just cleared the crossbar for the first score, 3-0 to Chiltern.

The home side had a great opportunity to go further ahead soon after, when a great move left from broken play caught the visitors defence in disarray, but the final pass to the unmarked winger Tim Lloyd just failed to go to hand and the chance went begging. Just before half time, however, with the home side down to 14 men, fly-half Ross Bugden having been sin-binned for deliberately knocking the ball on, and an injury to influential No.8 Adam Henderson, taking him off the field, the visitors were awarded a penalty under the posts, converted, to level the scores at 3-3.

With the home side now playing into the ferocious wind in the second half, home supporters would have been forgiven for fearing that the visitors would hold the telling advantage and would amass a number of points. It was Chiltern, however, that took the game to the visitors, despite now being without powerhouse second row Matt Craggs, who did not come out for the second half following a back injury. From only five metres out, prop Stuart Day collected a chip ahead and charged out of defence and it was then the home side’s turn to make camp in the visitor’s half. Ten minutes in, with Chiltern driving hard for the visitor’s line, the ball was moved swiftly left, but from what looked like an almost certain try for the home side, the ball was intercepted by the visitor’s centre, Josh Hannam, who outpaced all defenders to sprint 75 metres to score. The conversion was missed, but the visitors moved into the lead at 3-8.

Despite losing another of their big men, with prop Stuart Day having to go off with a blow to the head, the replacements more than compensated. Chiltern’s man-of-the-match Ben Allman being at the fore and Chiltern once more camped in the visitor’s half. Some desperate tackling kept the home side from scoring, but with minutes to go, Chiltern winger Tim Lloyd found space on the left and scored, what the vast majority of spectators on that side of the pitch thought, was a splendid try in the corner. The Lydney touch judge, however, thought differently and had his flag raised for a foot in touch. The referee, unsighted, consulted the touch judge who stood by his decision, so the try was not awarded. This denied the home side at least a well deserved draw, as the final whistle was blown soon after with the score remaining at 8-3 to the considered rather fortunate visitors.