Chiswick Overcome Ealing Youngsters To Reach Final

Rugby Result: Chiswick 43 Ealing 13

Chiswick Rugby have progressed to the Middlesex Cup final against an Ealing team comprising Academy players, with a few from the Ealing Men’s team.

Chiswick maintained an attacking ball-in-hand game from the start. Within five minutes they were five points up, a multi-phase move ending with a long run for the line by Rich Bryan, shrugging off tackles on the way. Ollie Snook’s kick was pulled just left.

Ealing’s no.5 leapt high to take the ball out of Bryan’s hands at the restart, as the visitors shot back, and the first of many decisions against the home side allowed them an easy three points. Ealing’s lineout work was impressive, but Chiswick’s back row was dominant in the loose, and Ealing struggled to make ground.

A try for Chiswick Rugby from another match

Midway through the half Chiswick went further ahead, taking a lineout and mauling on before the ball was released to Tom Steer, who rounded the defence before touching down just too wide out for Snook, whose kick came back from the upright. Ealing came back strongly, and looked to have scored in the left corner, but the wing dropped the ball whilst diving for the line. Not willing to be pinned in their 22, Snook made a great break out, and it looked like a try when Ryno Lopes stormed into the Ealing 22. It took a double tackle, but Ealing survived. A long kick downfield followed, and Gabs Lowe had to turn to retrieve this one. He was collared on the ten metre line, and Ealing gained a penalty. The kick was a beauty, and the gap was back to four points.

Five minutes to half time, and a sustained move by Chiswick led to Marko Chraplewczyk nearly scoring under the posts before Snook found Lowe on his shoulder with the defence opening up an inviting gap for the full back to cruise through. Third time lucky for Snook. Chiswick stayed on the boil, and looked to have scored again after another break by Snook. The referee saw some blocking, however, and play was called back. Discussions between him and the Chiswick captain, Sam Leslie-Miller were becoming more frequent, and Chiswick were yellow-carded down to fourteen minutes before half-time. There was just time, however, for another sustained home move to finish with Tom Harper crossing the line, and Snook adding the points.

Ealing tried hard at the beginning of the second half, but could gain little territory against a very solid Chiswick defence, thus having to resort to kicks. Chiswick’s counter-attacks were good, but forward passes and dropped balls spoiled a few moves. Ed Peach was involved in a lot of good attacks, but will want to forget a nicely-conceived, but poorly executed chip. Subs James Filbey, Jon Joyce and Alex Randall seamlessly entered the fray as Chiswick reinforced control of the game. Their next score was a try by Harry Cox, under a pile of Chiswick players who had forced their way over the line. Snook added the points.

Steer was seeing plenty of the ball, and scored wide out after good inter-passing between Snook and Lowe, the latter taking advantage of a kind bounce of an Ealing grubber kick to start the move. The kick failed. An Ealing sub nearly got an interception as Chiswick monopolised possession. Chiswick sub Adam Churton came on on the wing to make his debut, and capitalised on a run down the left wing by Steer, followed by a kick. Racing the defence to the ball he made a sensational pick up before diving over. Cox produced a blinder of a conversion from the left touchline before Ealing had the last laugh with a neat interception by their No.8 who scored under the posts.

Chiswick team:- Barkham, Dibble, Chraplewczyk, Copperwheat, Bryan, Topping, Lopes, Leslie-Miller, Cox, Snook, Purkiss, Harper, Peach, Steer, Lowe; Filbey, Randall, Joyce, Churton

January 21, 2019