CHOSEN HILL FP 7 BRIXHAM 64

Chosen stated the match with three seventeen year old backs and included club stalwart Dale Rennebach at centre after he stepped in at the last moment when Steve Merrick suffered a leg injury in the warm-up.

With the advantage of the slope and wind Chosen were soon on the attack and went close on several occasions before they eventually opened the scoring after twenty minutes. A break from halfway by centre Max Hough was carried on well by the experienced Rennebach who was halted just short of the line but his forwards, all of whom put in fine performances, were on hand to win quick rucked ball and in-form flanker Tom Gyde dived over for the try. Outside Half Mark Yemm added the conversion in what turned out to be Chosen’s final scoring opportunity.

Brixham responded by charging up field and when they were awarded a kickable penalty chose instead to kick for the corner and go for the line out but Chosen defended well and turned the ball over allowing Yemm to clear the line.

Another Brixham attack, this time a driving maul was halted near the line but Chosen second row Ryan Collier was deemed to have collapsed the maul and was yellow carded. Even with just seven forwards the home side kept the visitors at bay until on the stroke of half time Brixham finally used their forwards to drive over the line for a try converted by outside half Ian Morgan that levelled the scores.

Minutes into the second half Chosen suffered two huge blows when first centre Hough had to leave the field with an ankle injury and then second row James Hemming joined him on the sidelines with a back injury.

With Morgan calling the shots from outside half he kept Chosen pinned inside their own twenty two and two quick converted tries put the visitors into a comfortable fourteen point lead.

Trying to play catch up rugby, Chosen inevitably made errors and the visitors backs were quick to latch onto them spreading the ball wide and running in four more tries in quick succession. Having used all their replacements and with full back Ashley Lewis limping heavily, Chosen conceded three more tries in the final five minutes, unfortunately the last of which saw young scrum-half Tom Darby picking up a serious looking leg injury as he tried to halt the Brixham attacking move.

With no league fixtures next Saturday, Chosen at least now have the luxury of a week off, so hopefully this will give some of their injured players much needed recovery time.