Phoenix 29 Pts v Chesham 27 Pts

It was VPs day at the club and we put a strong team out against Chesham. Phoenix was captained by Tom Porter who also earned the man of the match for an outstanding performance both as a player and as the skipper.

Phoenix elected to kick off and immediately started to apply pressure. This resulted in an early penalty which unfortunately we missed however within 7 minutes we managed to cross their line for a well worked try. This came from another penalty which was kicked out, line out won and a fantastic driving maul put Neil Wincomb over. Paul Byrne missed a tough conversion making it 5-0 to Phoenix.

Phoenix were really dominant in the scrums and line outs and controlling the pace well, resulting in a further try by James Richardson, converted by Paul Byrnre. 27 minutes gone, 12-0 to Phoenix.

Unfortunately at 28 minutes Alex Prentice was yellow carded and having the overlap in the backs, Chesham managed to score twice levelling the score at 12-12.

Once he came back Phoenix took advantage and Simon K scored our 3rd try making the score at half time 17-12 to Phoenix.

2nd half started really badly for Phoenix and Chesham managed to get the ball wide on 2 occasions, there were a couple of slight mis-communications between James Richardson and the wingers (yes our prop playing 15 again) allowing 2 quick tries making the score 17-22 to Chesham at 47 minutes.

Phoenix then dug deep, changed the tempo of the game and after 3 collapsed scrums a penalty try was awarded. This was converted making the score 24-22 to Phoenix. During this process Chesham had 2 sin bins.

Unfortunately we did not manage to capitalise fully and Chesham, scored again making it 27-24 to Chesham.

We then put a lot more pressure on them and scored a fantastic hard earned try. We thought there was very little time left on the clock, but the ref informed us we had 10 left. Score was 29-27 to Phoenix.

Chesham gathered the restart and were pressing hard in our half. Edd Dibb got a yellow for a high last ditch tackle that probably saved the game for us.

With 14 men the boys toughed it out with loads of scrums etc making the final score 29-27.

A well-earned victory by the boys and a good way to celebrate VPs day.

Phoenix: Tom Porter (Cap), R Gill, E Dibb, N Wincomb, A Bird, T Morgan, Tony Porter, L Maundrill; A Prentice, P Byrne, J Kilby, Simon K, C Varey, J Richardson

Subs: J Dainty, M Lloyd, J Willis