The Mount is Chiltern’s Everest

Needless to say, yesterday’s match against The Mount was a different challenge for the 3XV and it was clear as soon as The Mount Team arrived on the pitch that we would have to be creative to win it. The Mount is like a Barbarians team , they play free flowing direct Rugby and the team is different every time. And it was no secret that most of The Mount’s team were from Gym Club.
-
The Game plan for Chiltern was actually the same as it always is. The forwards set the platform in the set pieces and let the backs do their thing. Ample amounts of good quality ball came from the forwards and with the backs converting that possession into territory and points we never lost the upperhand. Some great touch kicking from Paul Sitzy really pushed The Mount back into their own half throughout the game, never seen so many torpedos.
-
When the Mount’s backs did get a line break they were pretty quick and almost unstoppable so it was a good performance from the whole team to front up and make those tackles early and in numbers.
-
We scored , they scored , we scored , they scored. It’s was a tight match until 60 minutes when The Mount started to tire and Chiltern got 2 scores ahead. The pace of the game dropped off in the last 10 minutes and Chiltern closed it out expertly , stealing a lineout at the end.
-
Luke Donnebaum scored 2 tries from 5 metre scrum breaks with full length reaches. He was also the jumper in the lineout and really led the forwards battle in the loose which earned him Man of the Match.
Paul Sitzberger and Dan Kinsey playing at 9 & 10 is something they have done many times before and they led the backs forward into attack when it was our turn on the charge, or organised the defence when The Mount were one on one of their charges, both teams ran at each other a lot.
Jamie Gordon scored 2 Tries out wide and Harri Doyle beat a few players to go over for one too. Luke Donnebaum and Dan Kinsey linked up nicely for Dan’s try in a case of hat-trick avoidance from Luke Donnebaum. Dan got all the conversions over, benefitting slightly from the rule that you aren’t allowed to kick conversions at one end of the pitch as it goes over the fence too easily, so Dan actually only had to kick half of those conversions.
-
A few other memorable moments from the day :

• A majority of the 3XV travelled in Chiltern Tie and Shirt (No1s)
• Dan Kinsey wore his Salmon pink chinos after retrieving them from his loft especially.
• Ben Gordon finding an old Land Rover spark plug in one of his jacket pockets as he was going into the prison.
• Everybody in the team passed the Covid test.
• 3 Prison Guards played in the game
• Sarries had a couple of coaches there working with the Mount team.
• The referee was a Chiltern Vice President: Mark Yeomans. Who is also a Bucks County ref and ran the game very well , playing good advantages for both sides and had a lot of scrums to set. This is actually his second time refereeing us this season.

It was a good Rugby day and the Mount’s Rugby Coach (Woody) and Fixture Secretary Charlotte looked after all of us very well. The facilities and pitch were excellent and it was a really tight , fair contest played in good humour at times. Good luck to The Mount for the rest of the season and I would encourage the rest of the teams in our league to make the trip to play them , Home or Away it doesn’t matter !
-
3XV’s next League match is against Fullerians 3XV (A) on 6th November.