Brave Chiltern lose at the death

As seems to be a regular occurrence for the 3's this year, a slightly thrown together but talented team, strode out onto the hallowed Chiltern first team pitch to take on Drifters 2nd XV. The side contained another 2 more ex-colt's, I believe, making their senior rugby debuts. It was to be a stern challenge for all, given the hulking size of a few of the drifters players, who looked like they were married to their local gym, compared to the more lean (in some cases) and athletic figures in the Chiltern maroon and white.

Much of the pre-match talk had been about previous physical encounters with Drifters and that a solid defence is a common trait and that is how it proved. Conditions were pretty much perfect although the blazing sun made vision difficult for Drifters, who received the ball from kick off. The opening 20 minutes was dominated by intense physicality from both sides and Drifters perhaps edging it in the rucks. Great tackling from the likes of Tom Collins, Bodie Deane and Joe Jenkins kept Drifters at bay and eventually led to a penalty just right of the sticks which was well converted by Phil John to give Chiltern a 3-0 lead.

The scrums were, unsurprisingly, a big issue for Chiltern, given that Hugo (ex-colt playing prop) and Tom Parsons (ex-colt playing second row) gave away about half their body weight (at least) to their opposite number. The inability to hold the scrum steady after the ball was put in led to a number of scrums being lost and making it incredibly tough for Andrew Bobbet and Dom Rice to feed the backline. Drifters managed to break and only last ditch tackling from Johnny Rice and Scott Kilbey prevented a try. However, with the Chiltern defence scrambling from the resulting rucks, Chiltern infringed which led to a series of scrums being taken by Drifters and despite a huge physical effort preventing Drifters from pushing over, a penalty try was eventually awarded.

One of the moments of the game then occurred, when Zak Underwood charged down the resulting conversion attempt (first time I’ve ever seen that!), which gave Chiltern a huge lift and kept the gap to 2 points! 3-5 to Drifters.

From the kick off Chiltern forced a turn over and great rucking led to quick ball which was fired out to the right. More quick play from the rucks and hard running, combined with fantastic off loads, had the Drifters defence scrambling and eventually Bodie Deane picked the ball and spun between two defenders to score a great team try. The conversion was missed so the lead was back to 3 points as the half time whistle blew. 8-5 to Chiltern!

Emphasis in the halftime team talk was to continue the brilliant aggression and physicality shown in the first half against the much larger Drifters team. Annoyingly, the second half started poorly for Chiltern, with the continued dominance in the scrum and some indiscipline, Drifters walked their way down the pitch and after a while the pressure told with the ball being shipped left, where somehow their large, slow fullback, cut in off the wing and despite the best efforts of about 4 Chiltern players, managed to get the ball down. The conversion missed took the score to 8-10.

By now Chiltern had finally realised that they had Drifters out wide and the backline started to get more frequent ball. A cross field kick was fumbled backwards by the left wing which led to Gus Pollard kicking the ball on and a foot chase with the aforementioned full back ensued. With a bit of usual shoulder to shoulder action, Gus managed to just get in front of the full back before being hauled down as he was about to pick up the ball for a certain try. Somehow, the ref saw this as “6 of one, half a dozen of the other” allowing Drifters to break in the confusion and dismay. Fortunately, Tom Collins put in a huge hit, with the help of Jack Claridge (that may have been slightly high) which stopped play and incurred a warning from the ref but no card - perhaps due to him realising his error moments before. The arm wrestle continued until another move out wide from Chiltern led to Johnny Rice being tackled into a pile of sh*t. A 3-4 minute break took place as he was wiped down like a newborn baby, before play resumed with a line-out, which Chiltern had been having relatively good success from during the game. Perhaps it was the lingering stench of excrement but Drifters clearly weren’t ‘with it’ and ball off the top was moved wide left for Scott Kilbey to excellently cut back and score under the post. The conversion slotted by Phil John took Chiltern into a 15-10 lead!

The scrums suddenly became much more even with the introduction of Stuart Rogers who, despite nursing a back injury, heroically took the pitch. This converted to better ball for the backs and Chiltern really began to show their superior fitness and athleticism. Multiple breaks started by the likes of Dom Rice and Scott Kilbey could have so easily ended in more tries had ball gone to hand. As we entered the final 5 minutes, Stuart Rogers back flared up and he had to leave the pitch. Time wore down and the Drifters impetus increased. Some dubious calls around the scrum led to them camping just outside the Chiltern 22. With about a minute to go the ball was recycled through numerous phases to the left and in a particularly ferocious ruck, a Drifters player called out in agony as his leg got caught awkwardly. Many of the Chiltern players called for the play to be stopped but the indecision left a gap for the Drifters fly half to ease through the Chiltern line and touch down under the sticks. 15-15 and the conversion to win the game…sadly it went over to scenes of jubilation for Drifters and heartbreak for Chiltern.

A really disappointing end to the game and although the result clearly says differently, I think Chiltern were the better side on the whole, overcoming many difficulties. You could say Chiltern need to learn to play to the whistle but it was a fantastic effort and a bit more experience, size, and calmness may have seen this result look very different, along with a few decisions going our way. Needless to say, if the majority of these young players continue to play senior rugby, the club has a very bright future!

Every player was brilliant and bar the obvious ‘well dones’ from above, extra-special, honourable mentions must go to Joe Jenkins who ran hard lines all game and made some great tackles, Graham (The Angry Scot) & Bodie Deane for their aggression and tackling, Hugo and Tom for great efforts on senior debut and the whole forwards pack for a momentous effort in every scrum.

MOTM was split between Tom Collins and Dom Rice, who both had an outstanding 80 minutes.

We have Marlow away next week and look to get our league campaign back on track with a thumping win!

Tries:

1 x Bodie Deane
1 x Scott Kilbey

Conversion:

1 x Phil John

Penalties:

1 x Phil John

Man of the Match:

Tom Collins and Dom Rice