CHOBHAM 12 - 31 WINCHESTER
Head Coach Chris Searle: “I’m really pleased with the result and the players’ reaction. We challenged them to respond and they did, bringing the right intensity, physicality and energy from the first whistle.
Credit also goes to the coaching team. We tried a different approach this week and the players bought into it.
Injuries mean we are rebuilding and adapting, but that brings opportunity. A new-look Winchester is emerging, with players stepping up and making their mark.”
Chobham scored two tries, one in each half, but overall they struggled to make an impact as Winch took the game to a different level. An early infringement by Winch gifted the home side’s No 10 Sam Davies the first try of the game. Their second followed an elusive run from full back Danny Watson, after two Winch defenders hesitated over who should make the tackle.
In contrast Winch brought a certain class to their touchdowns, seemingly planned to perfection. After some early hiccups in the lineout, Harry Arkley took a super ball off the top to Fieldsend who fed the deceptively casual Tommy Hare. His break sucked in the Chobham defence and he finished with a long elegant pass out wide to flying wing Tom Banks, who scored in the corner.
With the conversion putting them in front, and with confidence renewed, the team began to put pressure on Chobham all over the field. Chobham wilted, succumbing to the knocked on ball, and forced to kick out. There was a higher pace to the forward game this week and young players, like Connor Furey, repeatedly took the ball inside the red zone.
Nevertheless it was a super pass from centre-back Finn Strangeway to the elusive Hare that enabled him to touch down close to the posts.
Two tries up, the forwards were in full flow, driving Chobham back into their own half. Perhaps overeager, they conceded a string of penalties. Yet Chobham, also playing on the edge, made the costlier mistake when their No 10 was sent off for a deliberate knock-on. The response was immediate as Tom Beach picked up from the base, ran a good line on the blind side before feeding Hare for his second try.
Fieldsend set up Hare, who created space, for the try of the match. Hare has the capacity to ghost past players and to draw support from his own team. With another exceptional run and pass, the ball was carried forward by a hooker and a wing in close support, before it was fed back inside to the young scrum-half Josh Burson for the touchdown. It was convincingly the try of the season.
Winch stayed firmly in control, and Fieldsend added further points with one of his trademark sniping tries.
By the final whistle it was clear that, while they are not yet the force of last season, the team is heading in the right direction and steadily building.
