Chippenham U15’s 45 - Marlborough U15’s 5

It was breezy and grey winter’s morning at Allington Field when Marlborough visited, but there was a fire burning in the Chippenham team who were determined to get through to the next stage of the D&W Cup.

Playing from left to right Marlborough kicked-off deep into the Chippenham half and immediately won a penalty for accidental offside. Kicking for the corner they won the line-out and drove through the middle to score their first and only points of the afternoon. It had all happened in a moment, but the Chippenham team didn’t panic, they re-focused.

From the re-start Chippenham followed up the kick and their forwards started to apply the pressure that was to define the game. Continuously driving the Marlborough team off the ball, this combined with their rush defence, forcing their opponents into numerous mistakes.
Minutes later a scrum from such a knock-on by Marlborough was won by Chippenham and Nattie took the ball from the base to drive over from 10 yards out to open Chippenham’s account and bring the sides level after less than 10minutes.

Now in full stride, Chippenham drove the ball back up the field from the re-start and camped in the Marlborough half. Repeated forward drives took the ball into the 22 metre area. Then the ball was released, Max A found a gap then drove through two players to score and put Chippenham into the lead.

Marlborough continued to put up a strong defence and to try to play their game, but it was the pressure that Chippenham put them under that prevented them making progress. The speed of Chippenham back-line in closing down their opposite number meant that they were never given chance to open up. After another set of repeated drives from the pack, Chippenham scored again through Sam who drove over from short-range to extend their lead.

More power from the forwards and control of the ball in contact and again Chippenham found themselves in the Marlborough 22, this time it was Jon who took the ball, and three Marlborough players, over the line to stretch the lead to 20-5.
Then with half-time in sight it was Tye who rounded off an excellent 30 minutes with a powerful burst through on the right following a great steal in mid-field by the backs.

Chippenham rang the changes at half-time and it took them a little while to find their shape. For the first 15 minutes although not under threat they couldn’t unlock the Marlborough defence. Then as they gelled it was Jon who took the ball on from a breakdown in the Marlborough 22 and jinked his way through to score. This seemed to settle the Chippenham team again and quickly after Sam was on hand to score his second and kill any thoughts Marlborough may have had of a come-back.

Chippenham kept up the forward onslaught, picking and driving through the Marlborough defence, this created space for Archie who cut a great line through from centre to score a well-deserved try. Chippenham wrapped up the game with an excellent move that showed the team at its best. The ball was turned over by the forwards just in the Chippenham half and fed through numerous hands to Kyle on the burst. He out-paced the initial defence to take play into the Marlborough 22 where the cover finally caught him. The ball was quickly recycled, and Max P was on hand to step inside the cover and score Chippenham’s final points of the day.

This was an all-round team performance and the pressure that they applied to Marlborough was the key. Clearly a good side, they had no space or time to be able to show that. Chippenham now look forward to travelling to Dorset and taking their Cup campaign to the next stage.