CHOSEN HILL FP 17 BERRY HILL 12

Chosen Hill’s last season injury woes meant that they started this season with a five point penalty deduction for failing to field a team against Brixham last March, and having lost their opening two away matches of this season at Cirencester and Barton Hill, the Churchdown based side were obviously keen to get their home campaign off to a winning start.

Like Chosen,visitors Berry Hill were newly relegated from South West One West so a close contest was expected and with first use of the Brookfield Road slope the Foresters were soon on the attack using their powerful forwards to set up a series of close range moves that pressurised the home defence, but the new look Chosen side showed real determination to protect their line with amongst others new centre pairing Phil Halstead and Josh Pettifer and number eight Mike King all producing try saving tackles.

Berry Hill lost their outside centre to the sin bin after ten minutes but despite being down to fourteen men they still managed to open the scoring when after a period of sustained pressure they drove a five metre scrum over the line for a converted pushover try.

Facing the slope and a strong wind, Chosen spent little time inside the visitors twenty two and their first real scoring opportunity came after thirty minutes but full back Ross Creed was unable to convert a penalty attempt from out wide and when, after thirty seven minutes, a minor scuffle led to Chosen prop Lewis Harben being sin binned the home side had to really dig deep to keep their visitors at bay. On the stroke of half time Berry Hill were penalised at a ruck and this time Creed landed the points to send his side into the break just four points behind.

Chosen started the second half with their new found confidence beginning to show, and after just five minutes half backs Matt Elston and Jamie Park combined well to set up Chosen’s opening try which turned out to be one of the finest witnessed at Brookfield Road for several years

From near the half way line Park kicked long towards the right hand corner and with the Berry Hill defence expecting the ball to roll into touch they hesitated to pick it up and failed to see winger Ed Higgs approaching at full speed. Higgs dived towards the ball and showing great skill flicked it up into the hands of the approaching Pettifer who drew the cover defence before sending hooker Mike Darby in near the posts. Creed added the extras and Chosen were now in front.

Chosen continued to enjoy territorial advantage and had two further chances to extend their lead but Creed was off target with both penalty goal attempts, however with around ten minutes remaining they were rewarded for their efforts when prop Harben crashed over for a try converted by Park.

Now leading by ten points Chosen looked to close out the match but Berry Hill’s forwards set up a series of rolling mauls and with the final play of the match drove over for an unconverted try to earn them selves a loosing bonus point.

For Chosen this was a much needed victory that will help restore their confidence and self belief and with both skipper Dean Barnard and coach Chris Leech pleased with their teams efforts and no injuries picked up the team can now look forward to next week’s trip to Bristol Harlequins.
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