Bognor fight back after bruising first half against Chobham

Having been battered for 40 minutes and, at times, looking as if they were about to suffer a defeat similar in magnitude to the one at Wimborne two weeks earlier, Bognor’s young side showed huge courage to fight back to within two scores of an impressive Chobham outfit.

The strong wind played a significant part but that did not entirely explain how the game turned completely on its head in the second half, Bognor’s 31 points just failing to earn them a second bonus point.

Bognor started encouragingly and were patient in their build-up, a well-placed kick by Jeremy Newton-Young finding the fingertips of Connor Herrington at full stretch. Had the ball stuck, the centre would have been under the posts but, with the ball bouncing favourably for the visitors and the home defence caught flat-footed, Chobham took advantage and scored the first try.

Conceding seven points in the first two minutes left Bognor looking shell-shocked and they struggled to get out of their own half for long periods. Their inexperienced and re-shuffled front five came under pressure and began to concede penalties at the scrum, one of which was converted to give the visitors a 10-0 lead.

Chobham’s dominance at set-pieces was extended to include lineouts, Bognor’s usual confidence deserting them as their throw-in was turned over time and again. The end result was that the visitors enjoyed a massive territorial advantage and further scores were looking inevitable.

Another two tries were secured by Chobham putting them into a 24-0 lead with half an hour gone. Some respite was gained when Herrington latched on to a break from skipper Jamie Foote and sprinted 60m for Bognor’s opening try, before the visitors scored a bonus-point try from a driving lineout.

The story of the half was one of mainly one-way traffic resulting in a healthy 26-point lead for the visitors but, on closer examination, had Bognor managed to take advantage of two overlaps created, the score would have been closer.

However, any hopes Bognor had of utilising the wind for an early fightback were quickly shattered as Chobham strolled over from a driving lineout and then rubbed salt in the wound with another try.

The large crowd present feared things might get messy but Foote had other ideas, Bognor’s man-of-the- match running in two tries from individual efforts.

It was Chobham’s turn to be hanging on, deep inside their own 22. Matt Norrell took advantage of a yellow card against the visitors for persistent infringements to smash his way over the line and earn a bonus point.

Charlie Spray set off on two strong runs and Simon Billingham supported well to crash over in the corner for Bognor’s fifth try.

Foote capped a fine performance with a crowd-pleasing run and a hat-trick try which ensured his side had outscored the opposition in the second half by five tries to two, but time had run out.

Head Coach Karl Flinn always knew this season would be a steep learning curve for his inexperienced squad and injuries could play a key part in their progress.

But he has been encouraged that, despite being short of six leading players who featured against the win against Winchester in the first match of the season, he has been able to introduce youngsters such as Zack Keulemans, Elijah Green and Charlie Pemberton, none of whom has looked out of place.

Bognor’s next three matches, starting with Twickenham away on Saturday, are against teams currently below them in the league so they will be hoping to pick up sufficient points to move up the table.