High scoring BBO1 opener ends in a draw

A&C opened their BBO1 league campaign against Witney away. In truth the game could have gone either way in the final minutes of the match but overall Chiltern know they threw away full points numerous times throughout the match.

The opening 20 minutes saw Chiltern score three impressive tries, the first a chip from Jack Davidson collected by Johnny Rice to score in the corner, conversion missed. This was followed up by another chip from Tom Smalley caught by Ryan Greenstreet who passed to Max Fisher to score his first of the game and conversion successful by Dan Wood 12-3.
The third try was a clever break from the back of the scrum by Will Browne who offloaded well for Max Fisher to score his second in the corner, conversion was missed.

Witney who were strong in the set piece throughout the game came back into the match when their hooker broke away from a lineout and scored in the corner making the score 17-8.

Chiltern then scored their fourth of the game when inside the Witney 22 Ollie Choules offloaded well to Tom Smalley who then found Ryan Greenstreet out wide to make the score 22-8.

Its fair to say Chiltern then let their foot off the gas and allowed Witney back into the game with 15 minutes remaining of the first half. Witney scored two tries in quick succession, the first a driving maul as a platform for their 12 to crash over, conversion successful 22-15.
Their next try came from indecision in the Chiltern backline when a grubber through wasn't dealt with and their 15 ran through to touch down and level the scores, conversion successful 22-22.

HT 22-22

After a strong half time team talk Chiltern returned to their patterns and had a good opening 20 minutes with two more well worked tries. Their fifth try of the afternoon came from a strong Johnny Rice run, the ball recycled quickly for Dan Wood to crash over, the conversion missed 27-22.

Chiltern's sixth try of the game was a break out wide finished very well by Ryan Greenstreet out pacing his opposite number to score in the corner, the conversion successful from Dan Wood making the score 34-22.

With 20 minutes to go Witney along with their crowd stepped up a gear and worked their way into the Chiltern 22 and after numerous phases of intense pressure the referee showed his first yellow of the game to Luke Donnebaum for side entry. With the extra man Witney eventually crossed the line to make the score 34-29, the conversion successful.

A good reaction from Chiltern, they pushed up into the Witney 22 and converted a penalty after the Witney 13 was lying on the ball and not releasing, Dan Wood converted to make the score 37-29.

With 5 minutes to go Witney were pushing hard for their fifth try and with a scrum 5 metres out from the Chiltern line they drove back the away pack and went over to the delight of their crowd, the conversion just missed making the score 37-34.

With the last play of the game Chiltern had a scrum in their 22, the feed wasn't straight so a free kick given to Witney. The referee then heard dissent from Chiltern's 9, Will Browne so a second yellow card given and the free kick turned into a penalty which Witney slotted to equal the game 37-37.

FT 37-37

The final whistle went to cheers from the home crowd and credit has to be given to Witney for their belief and resilience at home.

We look forward to hosting them on Sat 11th April.

Team:
1 Aidan Lever 2 Paddy Esson 3 Luke Donnebaum 4 Callum Reid Jones 5 Colm Gilhooly 6 Oli Oakley 7 Dan Wood (c) 8 Giles Westgarth 9 Will Browne 10 Ollie Choules 11 Johnny Rice 12 Tom Smalley (vc) 13 Jack Davidson 14 Max Fisher 15 Ryan Greenstreet 16 Harvey Gould 17 Tony Machado 18 Sion Owen

Tries:
Max Fisher x2
Ryan Greenstreet x2
Johnny Rice
Dan Wood

Conversions:
Dan Wood x2

Penalty:
Dan Wood

Man of the Match:
Tom Smalley