Stags force a draw against league leaders

July 8th 2017. The deciding Test match. British and Irish Lions one all in the series against the All Blacks and then a crucial refereeing decision, Romain Poite changing his original decision of a kickable penalty to New Zealand to a scrum. Whether that was a right or wrong decision now has no bearing on the match result but it was huge at the time and in his last play before he was forced to retire as a result of injury, Sam Warburton with his unassuming manner simply suggested to the referee he has a look at the incident again. Brilliant captaincy which meant the match ended in one of those rare rugby events, a draw. A sense of anti climax. Perhaps. However there was no anti climax at the end of a 31-31 result for Stags against Chinnor III on the weekend. Having scored a massive 201 points, with only 10 against them in the first four games of the season and comprehensively beating Stags last season, Chinnor would have come to Monks Lane with great confidence but a massive effort from Stags broke Chinnor's winning run which stretches back to who knows when. I am sure most of the teams in BBO 1 have given up on the statistics on this one, so dominant have Chinnor been the last few seasons. So we must not underestimate what Stags did on the weekend and whilst there was no sense of anti climax there was a sense of frustration, disappointment and pride all mixed together at the end. Stags had chances to win the game, particularly with a decision of a disallowed try by Joel Cripps going against them, but that's the way things go in games and all the players can feel very proud of their efforts.
Right from the kick off Chinnor pinned Stags in their own 22 and it was difficult for the home side to break out despite having most of the possession. Henry Sandys Lumsdaine made a try saving tackle and Ollie Spanswick and man of the match Harry Keatley secured a number of turnovers. Having weathered the early storm Stags put together some attacks of their own and finally forced their way into the Chinnor 22. However a loose ball was picked up by one of the opposition who raced in for a long range try. This was disappointing for the players who had worked hard in the opening stages to withstand a great deal of pressure only to give away what seemed to be a soft try. However, five minutes later Tom Cole kicked a penalty to make the score 7 - 3 to Chinnor. Twenty minutes in and Chinnor know they're in a proper game of rugby and some great cover tackling by Joel Cripps, great offloading by Alex Harris and secure mid field defence by Oscar Astbury gave Stags a lift. Despite this, Chinnor scored their second try of the game before Freddie Graham Campbell reduced the deficit after a great offload by Tommy Martin. Tom Cole kicked the conversion to make the score 12 -10 to Chinnor at half time.
Within a minute of the second half Stags went into the lead with a well taken try by Tommy Martin, again converted by Tom Cole. With Harry Keatley securing a great deal of quality line out possession Stags were confident they could increase their lead, but Chinnor then had their best plays of the game and scored a further three tries in a 20 minute period to make the score 31 - 17 to the visitors. However Stags did not panic, they simply went on playing with the same confidence they had shown all game and in the last 5 minutes scored two tries of their own, the second for Freddie Graham Campbell and a first for Harry Leonard, both converted by Tom Cole. Going into the final minute Chinnor were within 10 metres of Stags try line but great tackling and determination secured a penalty for Stags who settled for the draw by kicking the ball dead, the correct decision given the fatigue that was creeping in with such a monumental effort shown by all the players. A special mention to Adam Henderson who stepped in to play prop at late notice just when he was hoping for a quiet day at home! A great team man.
What a game, what a result. Well done to all the players. Saturday 26th October see Stags entertain Bracknell III, the only senior men's game of the weekend. Here's hoping for as much support as possible. Come and cheer on the team, a team which contains players who have already played Blues rugby this season and some young players who are unquestionably the Blues of the future.