Chichester welcomed Cobham to Oaklands Park on a glorious late summer Saturday afternoon. Blues made 5 changes to the team that beat Horsham in the last game. Harry Norton and Cieran Johnston returned at No. 8 and scrum half respectively, with Ben Robson and Cam Hopkins making their first appearances of the season in the backs. Niall Wright made his Chichester debut in the second row.

Cobham kicked off up the slope. It took Chichester 7 minutes to get the first points on the scoreboard. A defensive clearance provided Blues with a lineout just inside the opposition half. The ball was thrown to the back of the line and fed out quickly with Tyrese Makasi receiving the off load 30 metres out. The young flanker burst through the defence to score under the posts. Converted by Tom Blewitt. 7 - 0. With Cobham’s front row unavailable because of injury Blues’ pack were dominating the scrum and an infringement provided Blewitt with the opportunity to kick a penalty. 10 - 7. From the restart Chichester were soon back in the Cobham half. An overthrown lineout was recycled to Ross Miller whose pass found Cam Hopkins who put in a grubber kick and burst through to touchdown. 15 - 0 and 19 minutes on the clock. From the restart it took a ruck and 4 passes for Blues to move the ball 70 metres and cross the whitewash again, with Chichester’s captain Charlie Wallace the scorer. Converted by Blewitt. 22 - 0. Shortly after the restart the visitors put together their first sustained attack of the match resulting in a penalty try and yellow card for Chichester. 22 - 7. 3 minutes later Blues were down to 13 players and Cobham had reduced the deficit. 22 - 14 and 31 minutes on the clock. The visitors poured forward, looking to reduce the deficit further, but Wallace intercepted the ball and ran 70 metres to score the bonus point try under the posts and steady the ship. Converted by Blewitt.

Half time and 29 - 14 with the Chichester faithful breathing a collective sigh of relief!

Chichester started the second half strongly and it only took 3 minutes for Cieran Johnstone to score, darting down the blind side and breaking the tackle. Converted by Blewitt. 36 - 14. On 47 minutes Blues increased the score with another converted try. The move included 2 one handed offloads that had the balcony in raptures, as Miller crossed the line next to the posts. 43 - 14. Makasi gathered the restart and 5 passes later Miller crossed the white wash for his second try in the space of 3 minutes. Converted by Blewitt. 50 - 14. For the next 20 minutes both teams moved the ball around, with Cobham having territorial advantage without being able to penetrate the well drilled Blues’ defence. With less than 10 minutes on the clock it was the turn of the Chichester pack to get on the score sheet with a text book lineout and drive for Richard Ives to crash over and score. Conversion missed. 55 - 14. Blues’ final try of the afternoon came from a Cobham overthrow, at a lineout on the 5 metre line, with Sam Drayson on hand to claim the ball and drive over the line. Conversion missed. 60 - 14. With a couple of minutes left, the visitors mounted a final assault on the Chichester try line and despite desperate defending touched down for a try close to the posts, which was converted.

Full time and 60 - 21. Blues gave one of their best displays of running rugby for many seasons. The speed of their passing, linking and offloading was scintillating and much appreciated by their supporters. However, they should expect a much tougher game when the travel to Fairmile for the return fixture on the 8th of January!

The Chichester squad: Ives, Brown, Woods, Deavall, Wheeler, Makasi, Wallace (capt.), Norton, Johnston, Thompson, Robson, Jenkinson, Miller, Hopkins, Blewitt, Seaman, Drayson and Polhill.

The Chichester 1st XV’s next match is on Saturday, 25th of September when they travel to Camberley. Kick off at 15:00.