Chichester RFC return to winning ways against Guernsey
Chichester put last week’s narrow defeat behind them when they welcomed Guernsey Vikings to Oaklands Park and won 62-14.
On a mild winter afternoon, Chichester kicked off in this Hampshire 1 clash down the slope and were immediately on the attack. A deft chip on halfway from Rory Dowding dropped over the try line and was grounded by Guernsey as the young full-back chased it down.
The drop out was caught by Gareth Davies and passed out to Dowding and on to Rhys Thompson, who put a grubber kick through the opposition defence for Ethan Etherington to dot down in the corner. The conversion was missed.
Chichester increased their lead on nine minutes when Thompson burst through the Guernsey defensive line and crossed the whitewash, converted by Tom Mahon.
An infringement from Blues allowed the visitors to kick for touch in Vultures’ Corner. Chichester’s forwards stopped Guernsey’s driving maul but the ball was spun out and a missed tackle saw the visitors score close to the posts, converted for 12-7.
On 22 minutes Blues increased their lead with a 30m penalty from Mahon’s boot.
Play ebbed and flowed between the 22m lines, punctuated with knock-ons and penalties, until the 35th minute when Chichester final breached the visitors’ red zone.
From the breakdown the ball was shipped out to Luca Fleming who offloaded to Jo Amin out wide and beat the last man, the try converted by Mahon.
Three minutes later, from a scrum in their own half, Davies moved the ball out to Thompson who nearly broke through the opposition defence before offloading to Huw Binfield. Thompson was on hand to receive the ball back before releasing Dowding whose offload inside found Dan Heriot for the bonus point try, converted by Mahon for a 29-7 interval lead.
A resurgent Guernsey tested the Chichester defence, who contained the threat and turned over the ball. From a breakdown on the opposition 10m line, Mahon received the ball and put in a cross-field kick to Etherington, whose inside pass to Luca Fleming split the Guernsey defence for a try in front of a large crowd on the balcony.
Chichester were immediately back on the attack from a clearance by Dowding on the 5m line. Guernsey’s lineout wasn’t straight and from the subsequent scrum the ball was moved across Blues’ back-line.
Thompson’s offload released Etherington with Fin West in support, but a step inside cleared the way for a try close to the posts, converted by Mahon.
The visitors recovered the ball and, after several phases, crossed the try line but the ball was held up. However, having received the dropout, Guernsey made amends with a well worked try from a breakdown a couple metres out which was converted.
Chichester spent 10 minutes weathering the storm as the visitors upped the tempo, before Ethan Karr crossed halfway and released Heriot who offloaded to Amin.
From the breakdown, Davies fired it to Fleming who cut open the Guernsey defence to score, converted by Mahon.
Soon the ball was passed to Etherington on the touchline and his inside pass released Mahon to run the ball in for a try which he then converted.
The Blues lost a player to the sin bin, but Chichester had the final say when Josh Cameron charged down and gathered an attempted grubber kick to release Binfield for a 40m run to the try line, another score converted by Mahon.
Credit goes to Guernsey who worked hard for 80 minutes – and to 18-year-old Karr who started on the bench and played 76 minutes in an impressive debut.