1st XV put in a big performance to beat Aylesbury 5-12
A gritty performance from a Chiltern team who showed tremendous team spirit and dogged determination to overcome Aylesbury in a relegation battle. The win gives Chiltern a fighting chance to avoid relegation as it brings them level with Aylesbury and 2 points ahead of Newbury.
Played in difficult conditions with a strong swirling wind Chiltern’s forward battled for 80 minutes to great effect. They dominated in the scrums, won most of their own lineout and pinched a number of Aylesbury’s throw-ins. An early long range penalty attempt by captain and fly half Dan Kinsey hit the crossbar and Aylesbury struggled to clear their line. Shortly after a break by centre Neil Foster almost resulted in a try with a tackle stopping him just short. Aylesbury went offside in trying to clear the ball and Kinsey converted the penalty to give Chiltern a 3-0 lead.
Shortly after this Foster was put in the sin bin for a high tackle increasing the pressure on the Chiltern defence.
Chiltern opted to keep 8 players in the forwards and Chris Luker had to do the work of 2 centres. He was more than up to it. The only occasion when Aylesbury looked like scoring in the 1st half was when they created an overlap but Tom Fletcher at full back was able to pressure the centre into giving a poor pass to the winger and the ball was knocked on. Chiltern immediately went down the other end, won a penalty for offside which Kinsey kicked for a 6-0 half time lead.
The second half gave Chiltern what advantage there was from the wind and they used it to continually peg Aylesbury back in their own half. They were close to scoring a try on a number of occasions, the first when only a desperate tap tackle prevented Luker from scoring. This was followed by a period of driving play by the Chiltern pack with No. 8 James Green being stopped inches short but Aylesbury had strayed offside and Kinsey kicked another penalty to increase the lead to 9-0. More pressure resulted from the restart and Chiltern won another penalty to stretch the lead to 12-0 when Kinsey kicked the goal.
Aylesbury came more into the game and began gaining ground when their 2 big 2nd row players used their size to make hard yards. Chiltern defended well but began to concede penalties which gave the impetuous to the Aylesbury forwards. With 5 minutes remaining the referee awarded another penalty to Aylesbury and sent hooker Julian Alexander to the sin bin. With one player down Chiltern’s defence was finally breached to give Aylesbury a try and a final score of 12-5.
Team: Matt Allen, Julian Alexander, Neil Buchanan, Dan Pettinger(sub: Gareth Bourne), Colm Gilhooly, Dave Robertson, Chris Morris, James Green, John Naylor, Dan Kinsey, Liam Gilhooly, Neal Foster, Chris Luker, Charlie Griffiths, Tom Fletcher. Subs not used Alan Simmons, Petrus Schrauwers (Yogi)