Amersham & Chiltern 1st XV 3 - 44 Barnstaple 1st XV

AMERSHAM & CHILTERN EXPERIENCE THE REALITY OF LIFE IN THE NATIONAL LEAGUE

In only their second game of the season, the new-look Amersham & Chiltern 1^st XV faced a powerful, well-drilled, West Country side, Barnstaple, at home last Saturday and lost by 44 points to 3.

Barnstaple have been in the top half of this League for a number of years, so know what is expected and proved it by running in six tries to only a solitary penalty in response. There were some positives for the home side however. The scrums were solid and the line-outs went well, taking their own and even pressurising and disrupting some of the visiting team’s throws. Despite the score-line, Amersham & Chiltern also even managed to break into Barnstaple’s half on several occasions, spending quite long periods pushing for the line, only to eventually being penalised for an infringement, or having the ball turned over. It was when Barnstaple broke the defensive line, especially with the strong wind behind them in the second half that their bigger, more powerful and well-organised players proved too much for the home side.

The scoring commenced in the 8^th minute, when Barnstaple broke through and Chiltern’s scrambled defence resulted in a penalty for the visitors, converted, for a 3 – 0 lead. From the restart, however, it was Barnstaple’s turn to be penalised and the scores were levelled by Jim Dye. That turned out to be the sum total of the home side’s score for the afternoon. After 15 minutes Barnstaple showed their credentials with a superb break and, from their own half, swept through the home side’s defences with hard running, swift passing and good support play, to score a converted try, taking the score to 10 -3. Determined defence by Chiltern, also suffering two missed penalty kicks themselves, meant that it was not until 36 minutes gone before Barnstaple scored again in similar fashion, converted to make the half-time score 17 – 3.

The wind was a factor and with it now hard at their backs, Barnstaple kept the home side trapped in their own half for long periods. Chiltern had given away a penalty from the re-start, converted to increase the lead to 20 – 3 but, even with their huge No 5 sin-binned at the time, Barnstaple managed a big catch-and-drive from a line-out for a try wide out, unconverted, but increasing the lead to 25 – 3. Going into the last quarter of the game and with the home side tiring and starting to miss tackles, Barnstaple, now full of confidence, ran in three more tries – two in injury time (two converted), for a convincing 44 – 3 win.

Amersham now have the daunting task of travelling down to play League Leaders, Bournemouth, next week, who have had a remarkable start to the season winning 53 – 7 and 49 – 16. in their first two games.