Whitchurch 24 vs Cheltenham 26
Whitchuch welcomed Cheltenham for their first ever fixture against the club and it was the visitors who took early control with a converted try in the first 5 minutes. The home team then started to apply pressure and were awarded a penalty in front of the posts 5 minutes later. This was successfully kicked by James Marvell to start the scoreboard rolling for the home team. This continued and on the half hour mark as young scrum half Max Clarke kicked across field for winger Ben Vallings to catch on the run and score a great try. This again was converted by Marvell putting the home side ahead 10:7. Whitchurch were starting to take control, but a wayward pass was intercepted on the stroke of half time and the Cheltenham centre ran 50 metres to score under the posts. This put the home side behind at the interval 10:14
The second half started, and it was the home team making all the ground. Man of the match Elliott Horton broke through a few tackles and off loaded to Luca Owens Youen to score under the posts to regain the lead. Both sides then cancelled themselves out with some good play and defence from both sides until the 75th. minute when the Tigers broke through and scored again to retake the lead. With the conversion missed Whitchurch were trailing by 2 points and continued to attack the Cheltenham line when the ball came to Luca Owens Youen to literally charge straight through 3 Cheltenham defenders to score in the corner. The conversion hit the post, but Whitchurch thought they’d won the game by 5 points. As the game went into the 10th. minute of extra time Whitchurch chose to run the ball rather than keeping possession and gave away a silly penalty for not rolling away. Cheltenham kicked to the corner and from the lineout passed the ball through the backs to score in the dying seconds. This put the score at 24 each and the Cheltenham kicker broke the deadlock with his first successful kick of the afternoon to win 24:26
Coach Andy Powell said “He would never question the lad’s effort and the tries were superb and the shape of the team was great in the second half, we were flat in the first half but showed great attitude in the second. We all know we chucked the game away by game management, but it’s done now. I am confident that the team will now get stronger by the week.”
Frustratingly the second team fixture against Linley was postponed due to a lack of referee.
There are no games next week due to international weekend and the following week the first team are away to Stratford whilst the second team travel to Featherstone prison.
