Chichester are Batter-sea-ed

Blues made nine changes to the team that squeezed past London Irish 17-19 the week before.

Niall Wright and James Smith came into the forwards, Charlie Manger, Eddie Jenkinson, Tom Knight and Ben Heber joined the backs with Harry Sharp, making his 1st XV debut, Seamus McCormack and Gareth Davies on the bench.

The pitch was rock hard and a deceptively cold wind swept across the pitch.

Battersea kicked off and immediately had the Chichester defence under pressure, with their large and mobile backs looking to run the ball at every opportunity.

Redruth ruin Raiders' day.

After only 10 minutes Blues found themselves

19-0 down with Battersea running in two converted tries and mauling over out wide.

It could easily have been more with Chichester turning over the ball twice in the red zone, to clear their lines.

From the restart Chichester took the fight to Battersea and advanced over their 22 metre line, for the first time, with runs from Tyrese Makasi and Ben Heber. For 18 minutes Blues’ defensive work contained the hosts and play became disjointed and scrappy with handling errors and ineffectual kicking from both teams.

Horsham fall short at Medway.

Battersea finished the half as the started with their backs running in two converted tries and the flanker stretching to dot down on the line, in the final 10 minutes – 38-0 and half-time with Blues looking out of sorts.

Chichester received the ball from the kick-off, advanced towards the Battersea half and were awarded a penalty for a high tackle.

The ball was kicked long into touch but the hosts stole it at the lineout. However, some counter rucking allowed Gareth Davies to recover the ball and the forwards advanced towards the Battersea try line, with a series of pick and goes.

When it looked like momentum had been lost, Harry Sharp punched a hole through the opposition defence to dot down on his 1st XV debut, converted from out wide by Ben Heber, 38-7.

Battersea responded with a try under the posts to make it 45-7. From a lineout, Davies made a break and, supported by James Smith, they moved the ball 45m up the pitch but the relief was shortlived and Battersea were soon back in Blues’ red zone.

After some spirited defending the referee produced a yellow card and Chichester were a man down.

Battersea took a tap and go penalty and, with the extra man advantage, broke through to score, 52-7.

Despite having a numerical disadvantage, Blues rallied and looked the more likely to score. With Chichester back to a full complement, a sniping run from Davies was passed out to Zac Conley and on to Ross Miller.

The ball was recycled and kicked over the Battersea defence but was just too long for the hard running Matt McLagan to pluck out of the air beyond the try line. In the final five minutes Battersea scored two more converted tries.

The defeat drops Blues back to 10th in London one south, with two games left.

On Saturday, Blues host London Welsh (3pm)