A totally inexplicable officiating decision cost Chinnor the opportunity of an historic win in their first ever encounter with the Pirates. Mid way through the second half the visitors roared on by a travelling army of passionate fans had taken somewhat of a stranglehold on the match. A dominant scrum was proving a real weapon in the wet and greasy conditions which were making any flowing rugby increasingly difficult.

The Pirates managed a break out and crossed the halfway line when McNab was put away, his attempted chip kick was charged down by Will Feeney who then regathered and raced away from the covering defence to score under the posts. The simple conversion would have made it 5-20 and a 3 score game in conditions not conducive to catch up rugby. However much to the bewilderment of crowd and live stream commentators the officials conferred and adjudged the charge down to be a knock on, It must have been a temporary memory failure of the laws but it was a decision that gave the Pirates hope and they upped the pressure in the last 20 minutes , although Chinnor will be rueing other opportunities to seal the victory.

The Pirates had opened the scoring in the 12th minute with a well taken try by McNab after some powerful carries from Gibson and Bokenham. Chinnor responded well with a Slevin penalty, a sensible decision to take the points in what was obviously going to be a low scoring game. Chinnor had to adjust on 20 minutes when they lost the influential Shaw with a nasty looking knee injury. This would have a detrimental affect on Chinnor's lineout for the remainder of the game.

On 27 minutes Chinnor took the lead when the mercurial Feeney found space with an intelligent kick and managed to be the first to pick up the bouncing ball and dive over the line for a great solo effort, converted by Slevin. 5-10. Chinnor were beginning to get on top at the setpiece and having attacked again they forced a penalty deep in Pirates 22. The penalty was taken on the stroke of half time to stretch the lead to 5-13.

The wind and rain increased in the second stanza but Chinnor's real dominance in the scrum was beginning to tell. Numerous penalties eventually saw Young yellow carded and Chinnor take up camp in the Pirates 22. The game could have been won during this period but a few chances went begging with a bit more patience needed and not getting the rub of the green with scrum penalty advantage. But then came the charge down decision and the Pirates took their get out of jail card well.

A well worked move saw Relton through a gap and under the post to narrow the margin to 12-13 on 60 minutes. Chinnor still looked relatively comfortable and could always rely on the dominant scrum but a superb 50/22 from Trewin gave the Cornishman the one more opportunity they needed when Houston knocked over a penalty on 76 minutes.

Chinnor had one last shot in the 80th minute when McCraig went cynically offside and was yellow carded. 35 metres out at 5 metres in it was a difficult kick in the wet and against the wind but maybe a shot at goal was the right call? The ensuing lineout was disrupted and Chinnor could not gain the platform to launch an attack on the line, as the referee blew fulltime.

A disappointed Nick Easter said " We do seem to be on the wrong end of some really strange decisions that have material affects on results. We must learn to be rather more clinical in the redzone and take the opportunities to kill off games. That said after 6 weeks off the boys put in a shift and we were all massively lifted by the unbelievable noise and support. A big few weeks in front of us so hopefully we can recreate that passion at home against Donny and Bedford"