MATSON 22 CHOSEN HILL FP 12

Playing Matson at Redwell Road is, as many teams will testify, always a challenging task and for Chosen Hill it proved just so as despite leading for sixty five minutes they missed a couple of scoring opportunities and struggled at the line-out where Matson were in particularly fine form.

As a result of recent injuries, Chosen were fielding two debutants in this match, Jon Pavey at centre and Kieran Bowes at prop and both had useful games as the Churchdown based side looked to gain valuable points and move away from the bottom of the table.

With first use of the famous Redwell Road slope, Chosen took the lead after ten minutes with a penalty goal from full-back Ashley Lewis and he added a second goal on the half hour to increase the lead but there were already worrying signs for the visitors as Matson continued to dominate at the line-out winning all their own ball and much of Chosen’s.

With half time approaching Chosen lost flanker Mike King to the sin-bin after an infringement at a maul but they managed to hold on until he returned in first half injury time only to concede a late unconverted try after Matson secured a penalty line out and powered over in the corner to narrow the gap to just one point.

Whilst the first half had been dour entertainment for the good sized crowd, the second half turned out to be an all action affair. Chosen started brightly with forwards and backs combining well to move play deep into the Matson half but Lewis missed an opportunity to increase their lead when his penalty goal attempt after fifty minutes drifted wide.

Chosen then made tactical changes bringing on flanker Ian Riddel and centre Adam Claridge and moving Matt Elston to scrum half but minutes later Riddel was sin-binned and Matson took advantage of the extra man to move into the lead for the first time as they crossed for their second unconverted try on sixty five minutes.

From the re-start Matson fielded the ball and kicked long into the Chosen twenty-two, full-back Lewis fielded the ball well but hesitated with his clearance kick and Matson charged it down and crossed under the posts for try number three converted by Arron Fowke.

Lewis made amends with his forth penalty goal to reduce the deficit to just five points but then missed another fairy simple penalty chance. With minutes left, Matson kicked a penalty long into the corner and used a front peel to charge towards the line, the referee was in the way of the Chosen defence and despite being knocked over by the Matson forwards, he awarded a try when Chosen clearly thought it should have been a five metre scrum.

So despite a committed second half performance Chosen were left to reflect on what could have been at least one league point and next week they travel to the Forest to take on Berry Hill in the Gloucestershire Intermediate Cup Semi-Final.