Impatience and indiscipline cost Chiltern dear

The day started badly as Chiltern were forced into a late change when Ross Bugden’s overnight illness meant he couldn’t take the field against London side Barnes. Nevertheless it was good to welcome back Tom Shiel for his first league start of the season and to see a great young prospect Ziana Alexis make his First XV debut at loosehead prop.

The game was quick and both sides were keen to run the ball at every opportunity. Chiltern couldn’t come to terms with some of the early refereeing decisions but the Barnes kicker obligingly missed his first two attempts at goal. He did however convert a penalty after 12 minutes after Chiltern had declined their own shot at goal a few minutes earlier.

Chiltern’s scrum was strong and they were able to take the game to Barnes but too often tried to force the pace rather than be content to go through the phases of play unlike Barnes who played with great patience. No more points were scored however for some time but unfortunately after 25 minutes lost Ziana to a yellow card when he tried to change direction and caught a play with his foot which the referee considered a deliberate trip which was perhaps a bit harsh. The loss of a player gave Barnes an impetus that had been missing and they scored two forward led tries in quick succession one of which was converted as was a late penalty. Chiltern did convert a penalty of their own through Jack Kenyon but turned round 18-3 down at half time.

The second half started with Chiltern a man down again after Chris Jack was yellow carded on the stroke of time for coming in at the side of a maul and after 50 minutes Barnes scored their final try which was converted. Chiltern finally started to play with much more confidence ironically and scored a good try of their own after some excellent build up play. Dean Maclennan went over for his first try of the season and Kenyon kicked the conversion and then added another penalty to make the final score 25-13 to Barnes.

The team are trying so hard get back to winning ways that often they are actually trying too hard. It was good to see how much the scrum had improved and to see some new faces in the side. There are some other newcomers to Chiltern this week with scrum half Morgan Thompson from Ealing Trailfinders likely to make his debut, as probably will Joe Winpenny, an experienced prop from Chinnor.

Match report by Charles Owen-Conway