Chiswick win ugly away from home

Rugby Result :- Cheshunt 5 Chiswick 9

Chiswick made the long journey down the M25 to Cheshunt, on the back of 3 straight league defeats, knowing that nothing other than a win would do.

As this was the first time these sides had met, Chiswick only had the Cheshunt match reports to gage their opposition by, these told tails of powerful forwards drives and strong running centres. However Cheshunt started the game playing some expansive rugby, with their strong wingers getting plenty of ball in the opening 20 minutes and it was only some great cover tacking by the Chiswick back row that prevented them going over.

Chiswick’s defence held after this initial onslaught and the game settled with Chiswick backs getting more ball and using it out wide. The best chance of the half came after about 30 minutes, a miss pass by Sam Brown found fullback Lewis Hammond in space, he held the drifting defence and gave winger Roman Zakrevsky a one on one with his opposite number. After a nice step inside the Chiswick winger was heading for the line, only to be brought down inches short by the scambling cover. The half ended in a stalemate as fly half Keith Luckman’s penalty attempt fell short of the posts.

The second half began with the Chiswick forwards taking the game by the scruff of the neck, the 8 dominated at scrum time and the line out was functioning smoothly with the reintroduction of second row Mike Sampson. Chiswick dominated possession and territory, but were restricted to one penalty goal from the boot of Luckman.

Chiswick again were attacking in the Cheshunt half, but a rare handling error gave Cheshunt a scrum on their 10 metre line, a strong break by their number 8 took play deep into the Chiswick half, an attack down the blindside gave the winger a slight gap, which he exploited well to score in the corner.

With 15 minutes left things started to look bleak for Chiswick, recent history has shown that if there is a tight game Chiswick will lose it, 2 single point defeats cost them promotion last season. The heads did not drop though and Chiswick stuck to their game plan and played the game deep in the Cheshunt half, the rewards came in the form of 2 penalties, both converted by Luckman, the second coming when No 8 Pritchard was stopped just short of the try line – 5 – 9 with only minutes left on the clock. These last minutes were played in the Chiswick 22, 3 points from a penalty awarded in front of the Chiswick posts would not have been enough, so Cheshunt had to run, the defence held firm and after a chip to the corner was well tidied by winger Lee Miller, the final whistle blew, much to the relief of the Chiswick side and their travelling supporters.

Team; Campbell, E Pickering, Donaldson, Sampson, Chraplywyj, Maguire (Vinden), Pritchard, A Pickering ( Robbings ), Rob , Luckman, Miller, Brown, Coffey, Zakrevsky, Hammond.

November 7, 2006