Rugby: Chichester XV can’t spike Navy guns

With strong links to the military both on and off the pitch, retired Rear Admiral Paddy McAlpine, CRFC chairman, welcomed the Royal Navy’s senior development squad for a fascinating and tight tussle.

Chi’s director of rugby Paul Colley, also connected to the Navy, assembled a Chichester select squad with players from all three Chi senior sides and gave some of the younger emerging talent a chance to show their quality.

Ethan Etherington and Isaac Lavington, both 18, started the match and Oscar Delacy, only 17, made his senior debut from the bench. All acquitted themselves extremely well in a very competitive match.

Chichester in red started strongly with young skipper Owen Tucker to the fore in lineout and defence. Chi played with intensity and veteran fly half Jack Knight pulled the strings, distributing well and probing the Navy’s team with some astute kicks.

Chi were matching up very well in the contact and were quickly out of the blocks, pressing the Navy into errors. The solid set piece gave the reds some great launching opportunities with a couple of big lineout drives creating two excellent scores.

The Navy came back and scored two tries of their own but Chi upped the tempo again and a nice out-the-back pass from centre Makasi created the space with Jim Tribe hitting a great line to put the fast running Vos through the gap to score out wide, so Chichester led 17-12 at the break.

The Navy side upped the intensity and while Chichester had their moments they were being pinned back.

Chi made quite a few changes - a couple enforced by injury – and couldn’t get enough possession. The home side conceded two fairly quick tries, one from a driving lineout and the other from an unfortunate charge-down which could have gone anywhere but the bounce favoured the attacking side, pushing the Navy out to a 26-17 lead.

The last 15 minutes saw the Chi reds pushing hard with some big carries from Livai Tabau, who had caused the RN rproblems all night. But the last pass just wouldn’t go to hand and it ended 17-26.

Colley said: “It was a fantastic game and a real opportunity amid our tough league programmes to try a few things and hopefully help the RN as they prepare to play the Army Academy. Our supporters came out in numbers and made it a cracking atmosphere.”

This Saturday Chi are back in league action with the ones at home to Chobham, the twos/development team away to the Isle of Wight and the threes at home to Sandown & Shanklin 2s.

Chichester RFC’s U12s won the Defender Premiership Rugby Cup at Harlequins’ Training Centre in Guildford.

Playing against teams from across London and the south of England, Chichester negotiated the pool stage before securing a place in the semi-final and final, which they won with the last attack of the game.

“We are extremely proud of the team and the whole squad of players. We are not a large team, but what we lack in size, we make up for in determination, heart and commitment. We can’t ask the boys for any more,” said proud Head Coach Phil Guilfoyle.