Chichester give Bognor a scare in enthralling derby
Chichester took a four-try bonus point but Bognor – visiting their neighbours for the first time in 17 years – continued their promotion push in front of Oaklands Park’s largest crowd since 2014.
It was a thoroughly entertaining game of rugby with a frenetic finale - well worth the long wait.
Bognor will secure promotion on the final day of the season if they beat Millbrook at Hampshire Avenue.
Chichester made five changes with Ethan Etherington, Tim Cook and Rhys Thompson joining the backs and Josh Cameron and Harry Clark on the bench.
On a sunny afternoon, Bognor kicked off up the slope and started with purpose and having been awarded two quick penalties, opened the scoring from a tap and go in the red zone.
Bognor continued to look dangerous but, having weathered the initial storm, Chichester started to look dangerous with great carries from Huw Binfield and Dan Heriot. Rhys Thompson crossed the try line but was deemed to have received a forward pass.
From the resultant scrum Josh Brown picked up a loose ball and dived over the line to score, converted by Rory Minton for 7-7.
Play ebbed and flowed between the 22m line until Bognor infringed and Rory Minton had a shot at goal from 40m. The ball drifted wide, but he made no mistake when the visitors concede a second penalty from the dropout.
Bognor regained the lead with two quick tries, one of which was converted. Chichester were punished for a couple of missed tackles, undone by a particularly cruel bounce from a chip over the defence that fell into the arms of the chasing Bognor player, and then had a player sin binned.
The visitors also had a player sent to the sin bin with Rory Dowding dispatching the ball to the corner for a lineout. Having secured the ball, Chichester mauled over the line with Fin Glass dotting down, converted by Minton to make it 19-15 to Bognor at the break.
Chichester kicked off and were immediately under pressure shipping two converted tries. The first saw Bognor’s scrum half burst through Blues’ defence and evade three tacklers in a 75m sprint and the second saw a high ball ripped from the defender before he had a chance to call the mark – 15-33 and the visitors seemingly in control.
But Chichester regained the ball and after great work from Minton, Gareth Davies’s pass released Dowding and saw the young centre burst through a gap and outpace the defence to score close to the posts to the delight of the packed balcony, converted by Minton.
Another blistering run, saw Bognor add five more points but despite a 16-point deficit, Blues dug deep – but were unable to stop the onslaught from the opposition forwards that eventually saw the ball cross the whitewash in the corner – 22 - 43.
The Blues surged up the field and Bognor found themselves defending their 5m line but, rather than putting the laces through it, they tried to play the ball out and conceded a penalty.
Josh Brown took a tap and go, carried the ball into contact and after several pick and goes it was spun out across the back line towards Vultures’ Corner, where Norris was on hand to score.
Blues infringed 30m out and Bognor slotted the penalty to go 29-46. Chichester weren’t about to give up and some glorious interplay, involving Owen Tucker and MoM Dan Heriot, saw the ball go to Fin West who squeezed past the last man on the touchline and dotted down under the posts, converted by Minton.
Bognor were worried but their response was immediate with an unconverted try out wide. Again Blues responded, with another penalty kick deep into the red zone, where they reprised their earlier rolling maul, with George Knight dropping on the ball to score, making the final score 41-51. Chi ran out of time to claim a losing bonus point to add to their other point.