CHINEHAM RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB

A disappointing trip to the island for the lions as they came away empty handed despite having the upper hand in the scrum and a hefty amount of possession and territory.

After an emotional minutes silence in honour of Sandown and Shanklin’s late club president, with both teams retiring the number 12 in honour, a poor start from the Lions as opposition 9 broke from the base of a scrum to send the 10 through under the sticks. The lions struck straight back, some delicious offloading down the left touchline leading to great field position for the evergreen O’Brien to force his way over from close range. A lapse in discipline from the restart lead to an early yellow for winger George Young, with Sandown scoring a contentious try moments later from a quickly taken penalty 5m out. Chineham hit back instantly with a penalty from Soper before a failure to dealt with the resulting kick off (and lack of a linesman to spot the ball had gone out of play) led to another Sandown score out wide. After a number of missed chances Chineham was punished as the half was closed out with another try for Sandown’s number 10.

Another contentious score at the start of the second half looked to have sealed the win for the hosts before Chineham hit back with a quick-fire double. Strong work from Chris Dorling feeding fullback Joe Belcher to weave his way through a number of tackles to score his first Chineham try. This was shortly followed by another Dorling pass leading to birthday boy Ben Mansfield scoring, with both conversions added bringing the visitors to within a score. With momentum going only way, a couple of costly missed chances lead to a lapse in concentration that Sandown capitalised on, putting the result to bed with the final score of the game. A physical and enjoyable game with plenty to work on for next week’s visit of Southsea Nomads, the boys looking to exact some payback for their opening-day defeat.

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