Classy Colts brush aside Chinnor to win league semi-final

YOUTH RUGBY

SHIPSTON Colts won their Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire League Division Three semi-final recently with a 25-7 success over Chinnor.

A healthy crowd turned out for the clash at Mayo Road earlier this month and the Colts were so keen to get going that they were deemed offside from kick-off.

Chinnor then made a big call and went for a scrum, and from this moment Shipston took the game to them.

They established possession, then using their forward power and back line pizazz, started to dominate. They were fast, direct and looked amazing with ball in hand.

The scrum was solid, with the forwards and backs all contributed.

Chinnor were under siege, however, Shipston were not able to convert their phases of play into points.

Chinnor were fast when they got the ball and they had some good players in their back line, who were evasive and had real pace.

Then Sam Lewis got the ball and things opened up, allowing George Hendy to fly through to score under the posts.

Hendy converted to give Shipston a 7-0 lead after 20 minutes.

The Colts looked hungry and kept Chinnor back, but they failed to add to their score by half-time.

After the break Shipston made some changes by making the pack lighter, but was compensated by plenty of energy.

This resulted in the next try when Devon Perry picked up the ball in the Chinnor 22 and drove over to make it 12-0.

Not long after Shipston were awarded a penalty and Hendy duly obliged to extend the lead to 15-0.

From then on in, both sides seemed to be cancelling each other out until a kick through by Will Flynn was collected by Henry McCarthy, who stormed over.

Hendy was successful with the conversion and now the Colts were 22-0 up.

Shipston’s spirit was back up and they attacked the try line vigorously.

They were then given another penalty which Hendy slotted over to make it 25-0.

Chinnor continued to plug away and in the dying moments they bagged a converted try to complete the scoring.