Chippenham win

Chippenham put in a strong shift at home

Chippenham started the game under pressure, sitting second from bottom and battling a side who put a strong side in Banbury to the sword the week before.

Chippenham kicked off and piled the pressure on in the reading half, dominating in the set piece and forcing the opposition back 5 yards back at the scrum with one against the head.

With the Chippenham set piece looking strong, some good phases from Chippenham and quick hands saw Bradley Doggett go over in the corner. Extras were missed.

The restart saw Chippenham storm back up the pitch with quick hands to Bradley Doggett offload to Sean Johnson, who was brought down metres from the line. An unsuccessful offload resulted in a scrum for Reading to clear their lines.

Some further phases from Chippenham saw them charge up the pitch and gaps began to appear in the Reading defence, which resulted in 2 tries in quick succession for Saunders.

Soon after saw a flat ball from Riccio take a wild detour due to a gust of wind which sat up and flew into the hands of the Reading outside centre who ran in a try under the posts from halfway.

Next we saw some strong forward play from Chippenham, with the likes of Bye and Hendy setting the pace with some strong lines of running. The ball popped up to Graham, and some quick hands from the Chippenham forwards saw Turner storm down the wing and touch down under the posts.

With the score at 24-7 at half time, Chippenham knew they still had a battle on their hands with Reading still posing a threat around the field when in possession.

The restart saw Chippenham concede a number of penalties in quick succession and were pinned back on their line as reading went to the corner for a 5m line out. The resulting throw at the lineout wasn't straight and Chippenham were then able to relieve pressure and clear their lines.

Reading soon began to string some strong phases together, Chippenham defence stayed strong, however, the Reading attack soon produced a try from their first dangerous attack of the half.

Having started the second half in a lethargic manner, the Reading try appeared to invigorate Chippenham who once again worked their way into the opposition half, Turner once again popped up on the wing to go over the line. Reset that, Turner deemed in touch by the referee.

Chippenham soon made up for the missed opportunity with some slick hands which saw Clark go over out wide.

Again Chippenham found themselves in the opposition half with space out wide, quick thinking and patience once again served Chippenham well as they followed through their patterns and held on to eventually release the ball out wide and send Dickens over for try number 6. Some quick thinking and individual skill from Graham soon saw him crash over for try number 7 in the corner.

With the game coming to an end, legs became tired and some errors began to creep further into both sides, an unfortunate mistake from Reading in midfield saw the ball pop up for Turner, who turned back the years, to stride in from halfway to finish the game 46-14.

All in all, a strong performance from a convincing Chippenham side who needed to react and bounce back from the disappointing result the previous weekend.