Rugby Result - Chiswick 10 Mill Hill 15
After the high of last week’s victory, this was down to earth with a bump. In fact a lot of bumps as a sturdy Mill Hill team paid little respect to the league leaders.
Losing the first two lineouts on their own throw proved costly, the second producing a try ( not converted ) for the visitors in the corner. Knock-ons, turnovers and sliced kicks all followed as the home team struggled to get into their stride.
The sight of their excellent No.8, Nick Pritchard, performing well in defence, and then in attack, began to settle the home nerves. One long attacking sequence, begun by scrum half Glen Ambrose with a tapped penalty, took Chiswick up to the visitors 22, but Mill Hill were well on top territorially.
Eventually Chiswick applied some pressure, and a poor drop-out, well taken by Elliot Pickering, gave them a good platform. The first attack ended when Dan Coffey was pulled down close to the line, but a quick second phase on the open side found Sam Brown on the wing with, guess who, ( Pritchard ), outside him, and the latter scored comfortably. Keith Luckman got the conversion. Suddenly the home mood changes, and after several phases with both centres making inroads into the visitors defence, lock Marko Chraplewczyk popped up outside to give a scoring pass to Brown, who dummied his way over in the corner. The kick failed.
Mill Hill upped their game at the beginning of the second half, and prop Shane Donaldson did well to cope when Ambrose, under pressure, gave him a short pass feet from the home line. Their fly half then just missed with an attempted dropped goal, but succeeded with a penalty kick minutes later, and Chiswick were reeling. In a moment however, things changed again, and an exhilarating home passing movement only failed because, within yards of the visitors’ line, prop Kelvin Campbell found there was noone outside him. Quick re-cycling across the pitch left Mill Hill floundering, and Lewis Hammond put Lee Miller in at the corner. Luckman’s kick came back off the post.
Mill Hill again upped their game, and pinned Chiswick in their own 22. Unable to get the ball, the home team finally conceded a try to the visitors’ outside centre, easily converted. The final ten minutes were nail-bitingly full of incident, although right at the death Chiswick managed to camp comfortably in the Mill Hill half, to the relief of their coach and other supporters. This was a lucky win, but Chiswick can gain something from the good play of their back row and the half-backs, who provided a solid core to the team.
Chiswick team :- Donaldson, Pickering, Betts ( Campbell ), Chraplewczyk, Maguire, Robbings, Pritchard ( Smith ), Ambrose, Luckman, Miller, Hinze, Coffey, Brown, Hammond.
January 30, 2006
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