Chipping Norton 21 Pts v Phoenix 3 Pts

A fantastic team with great spirit was fielded for this first league match of the year, and although the team had many new faces, at times it looked like one that had played together for years.

Phoenix won the toss and captain Robin Gill elected to kick off. With the kick off not going 10 metres, a Chipping Norton scrum was awarded. This first scrum showed how hard the club has trained in this area and Phoenix landed up on attack. Within 5 minutes Chippy infringed at the ruck and conceded a penalty. Nigel Coltman took the kick and narrowly missed. Further pressure from Phoenix resulted in another penalty, this time the kick mas made putting Phoenix ahead 3-0 on 14 minutes. Phoenix camped in the Chippy half for much of the first 30 minutes, but unfortunately did not manage to add to its score.

On 33 minutes Chippy got a very luck call - they managed to put a kick and chase through, debutant Ainslie Campbell covered the kick and seemed to dot it down but one of the Chippy players dived on the ball and the referee awarded the try. 7-3 to Chippy. As with club policy we had already started using interchanges with new club member Alex Prentice coming on at scrum half for an injured Paul Byrne. Gaw Thongchumsaeng came on for Nigel Coltman and at 35 minutes Luke Maundrill was replaced by Alan Bird. Unfortunately Lar Thongchumsaeng got injured in the last 10 minutes of the first half which meant much shuffling was needed in the backs and Phoenix lost a little of the dominance and continuity he provides to the backs.

At 39 minutes the referee made a total blunder and awarded a penalty try for an intercept knock back by Campbell when Chippy managed a rare break into the Phoenix half. So Phoenix finished the first half definitely looking and playing like the team who should be winning but finding itself trailing by 14-3.

The second half saw Chippy attacking for the first 20 minutes but some brilliant defence by the Phoenix backs (notably Tom Pell making 4 try-saving tackles), kept them scoreless. All the backs were solid and covered and communicated well defensively. Back row, Dave Harris, Mikey Lloyd and Ian Watkinson were all over the park assisting in keeping the opposition away from the Phoenix line, but at 79 minutes Chippy eventually managed to break through making the score 21-3.

The tight 5s Tom Porter, Robin Gill, Edd Dibb, Luke Maundrill, Alex Jones and Alan Bird had fantastic games. Alex and Ian dominated the line outs. The backline played well defensively and by the next game should be a more formidable back line in attack.

Moment of the match... Edd Dibb’s “box kick” - say no more!

Man of the match. A very hard choice as the loose forwards were all over the place, Alex Jones and Robin Gill dominating the aerial battle, but Tom Pell and Dave Harris shared the honours this week for outstanding defence.

Phoenix: Tom Porter, R Gill (Capt), E Dibb, L Maundrill, A Jones, M Lloyd, D Harris, I Watkinson; L Thongchumsaeng, P Byrne, J Dainty, N Coltman, C Varey, T Pell, A Campbell

Subs: A Bird, A Prentice, Gaw Thongchumsaeng