Disregarding last week's experimental tournament at Maidenhead, the U15's record so far this season was one defeat playing well and one victory playing poorly. Today we set the record straight and played well and won well.

It wasn't easy though. It was evident from the start that Amersham & Chiltern's game plan was to play a forward dominated game, where they clearly had the advantage in terms of weight. To begin with the ploy worked and they were able to power over the try line following a penalty inside the Chinnor twenty-two to move into an early five point lead. However, this was the last score they were to enjoy until the closing stages of the match. Despite this, the 5-0 lead remained intact for a good portion of the first half, during which the Chinnor forwards slowly but surely gained the upper hand and ground down the opposition. The rucking was good and the use of the ball behind the ruck was controlled and sensible and eventually Chinnor were rewarded when a fine interchange between Nic Barker and Ollie Wingfield released Nic on an arcing run for a score in the corner. The conversion proved to be too wide but straight from the kick off Tommy Evans took the high ball and made ground and set up the ruck from which the ball was recycled once more to Nic on the right wing to score without an A&C player touching the ball. Two tries in two minutes, the second of them converted by Ollie Wingfield, gave the visitors a fully deserved 5-12 half time lead. Last season Chinnor heads might have dropped when falling behind early to a big, physical team, but it was the A&C boys who went into the half time break with their heads down.

The second half began as the first ended. Chinnor continued to press straight from the kick-off and the pick of the tries soon ensued. Lewis Aitken took a quick tap penalty near half way and made ground before releasing flanker Henry Gayler. Henry made further ground before offloading to Guy Carter who almost made it to the try line. Unable to get there he kept the ball alive and returned the compliment to Henry who was able to power over for the score. Chinnor's dominance continued against an opposition that was now starting to lose some discipline and we should have been awarded a penalty try when an A&C player kicked the ball behind the dead ball line following a chip through. Justice was done when Nic Barker bagged his third and Chinnor's fourth try from the resultant penalty. Ollie Wingfield then scored our fifth try straight from the kick-off which George Grose converted to give Chinnor a 5-29 lead. Chinnor then made a number of changes and had to soak up a late surge of pressure from the hosts, who were eventually rewarded with a try in the dying moments to close the game out at 10-29.

This was an enjoyable game and a valuable win. There were big performances all over the pitch, which was tremendously encouraging, and the work rate of the back row in particular was outstanding today. There were also good performances from a number of boys who have not always had as many opportunities as others. Well done to the whole squad.