The result was in the Blues’ hands…
In a season of huge “highs” and “lows”, calling the likely outcome of Newbury Blues matches is a minority pastime. And Chippenham RFC were clear winners of the match at their Allington Field home ground earlier this season. But, after an ultimately convincing win last time at home against Thornbury, and with some previously injured players back in the squad, the Newbury Blues had good reason to be just a bit confident of a good result.
The first 10 minutes showed good, solid rugby on both sides. And the Blues put the first 3 points on the board with a penalty. Chippenham carried on like that – consistent, nothing spectacular, a bit “low energy” – for the rest of the game. But something happened to the Blues, like someone had let the air out of their tyres. In the following 10 minutes or so, Chippenham strolled over the line to score 3 tries, two converted, and the match stood at 26:3 in their favour. It wasn’t that they were particularly impressive; they just weren’t meeting any meaningful resistance.
Half an hour in, there were some signs that the repeated Chippenham advance was being blocked and the visitors weren’t able to make the yards. At 35 minutes, Blues Wing Ben Hurford-John put down an excellent try, ably converted by Captain Dan Thorne. The sides went in 10:26 in favour of the visitors.
It still looked like it was going to be an unhappy afternoon for the Blues fans when Chippenham added another converted try in the first 5 minutes of the second half. But, having so clearly lagged behind Chippenham for so much of the first half, the Blues gradually transformed their play into more than Chippenham could handle in the second. They put in a converted try after about 15 minutes and positively sprang into action at 30 minutes after another try. The crowd woke up, too! Now enjoying an excellent afternoon, Ben Hurford-John made another try (so, a bonus point!) a few minutes later, again converted by the Captain. At 29:33, with 5 or 6 minutes plus injury time to go, the game was very much alive and a Blues win tantalisingly close.
The game didn’t always display the best of humour and early and late on in the second half Chippenham had a man in the sin bin. The Blues didn’t make very much of the late advantage and were, a couple of times, held up on the try line. Chippenham added another 5 points in the very closing minutes, the momentum once again seemed just a bit to ebb away from the Blues and the score settled at 29:38 to Chippenham.
The Blues perhaps showed the costs of long-term injuries, with brilliant players back in the squad lacking game-time together as a team, but truly it was a game decided by the Blues’ level of play across the match. Disappointing though the result might have been – not least because the Blues probably felt a bit robbed – there were real positives in play (dominance in the scrum, better line-out) and in spirit (coming back with serious resolve after a heavy defeat away at Trowbridge).
The Newbury Blues are away to North Dorset on Valentine’s Day and next home again on 28th February to host Keynsham – when it is their fabulous “Pink Day”, the charity fund-raising day. Be there! Come on you Blues!
Photos by kind permission of Redwater Images
