Saturday 31st October 2009 - Amersham & Chiltern (Away)

A somewhat depleted Grove team lost their unbeaten league record at Amersham & Chiltern on Saturday and in so doing dropped a place to 3rd in the league, behind Witney and Amersham respectively. The Amersham winning score of 22-6 was achieved by a combination of their superior set piece play, a superb 100% place kicking display by their full back and captain Dan Kinsey and far too much indiscipline by Grove. Grove were not helped when they found prop Richard Keen and lock Rob Weaving were unavailable on the morning of the match

Grove were behind in less than 3 minutes as Kinsey converted a penalty for a Grove player holding on to the ball on the ground. The same offence was almost immediately repeated but this time Amersham chose to kick for touch. They surprisingly lost their own line out which enabled Grove to launch an attack involving fly half Roger Sevier, centre Dave Maryon, full back John Barrett, lock Nathan Brooks, winger Zach Grant and finally No.8 Ben Nicholl who was taken into touch deep into the Amersham half. This gain was nullified however when, from another penalty, Amersham kicked long to touch. Amersham followed up some good pressure with a converted try by debutant winger George Mitchard to put the home side 10 points clear after 11 minutes. Grove however moved back into the Amersham half and were rewarded with a penalty of their own which Roger Sevier put over from distance to bring the score to 10-3. From the restart, Ben Nicholl put in a great pass to allow Nick Sevier to go for the line but the Amersham defenders managed to clear his kick and chase. Grove then launched another fine attack through Ben Nicholl, John Barrett and Grant only for it to be ended by a violent shoulder charge on Grant from the Amersham hooker and former Springbok trialist Stefaan Myburgh. Lucky not to receive a red card he was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes but Grant also had to leave the field for treatment to his cut head, replaced temporarily by John Gerring. Without the presence of their influential hooker, Amersham were put under pressure from the visitors, but the defence held firm until his return to the pitch. Grove tried to launch further attacks through their backs for the remainder of the half, but with ball being delivered from a pack that was under pressure, these were not the flowing moves wished for. Despite the home side’s set piece dominance, great defence, particularly from the Grove half backs, meant that Amersham could not get over the try line to score again and the half ended with the score remaining at 10-3.

The second half started exactly as the first had with Amersham scoring from a long range penalty, again awarded within a minute of the kick off, but Grove struck back immediately themselves with a penalty kick from Roger Sevier to take the score to 13-6. As the second half progressed Amersham’s pack continued to dominate their counterparts in the set piece and it was only great scrambling defence from Grove that stopped 2 good breaks out wide from being scored. In particular wing Tom Harrington stood out and flanker Jamie Fredericks also repulsed a big attack virtually single-handedly. Ben Nicholl earned his Grove man of the match award with some strong running from scrums and open play but the home defence again held firm. Late replacements Gerring and Kerr contributed well when they had their chances but as the game stuttered though a series of penalties it was clear that some of the Grove players were becoming frustrated. This inexcusably resulted in back-chatting and dissent to the referee which just made matters worse and it was from three such incidents that Amersham were able to add another 9 penalty points from the unerring boot of their full back Kinsey. Both Grove and Amersham managed to muster up a couple of tired attacks near the end of the game, but none of them came to anything and Amersham deservedly finished ahead but the scoreline of 22-6 was slightly flattering due to Grove's indiscipline rather than ability on the day

Grove team

Eltham, North, T Eltham, S Maryon, Brooks, Fredericks, G Nicholl (Kerr), B Nicholl, James Barrett, R Sevier, Grant (Gerring), D Maryon, N Sevier, Harrington, John Barrett

Reps: Mack, Kerr, Gerring

Scorers

Grove

Penalties – R Sevier (2)

A+C

Try – Mitchard Conversion – Kinsey Penalties – Kinsey (5)