Poiner shines but visitors complete the double

CHINNOR 3rds, having beaten Henley 2nds in the county cup the previous week, completed the double over their county rivals, this time winning in last Saturday’s Counties 1 Tribute Ale Southern North clash at Dry Leas.

The visitors flew out of the blocks and physically dominated Henley in the first
20 minutes. They won the majority of gain line exchanges and scored four tries to go 26-0 up against a shell-shocked Henley side.

Henley fought back and were eventually able to get their foot back in the match. Morgan Poiner backed up his man-of-the-match performance last week with another outstanding effort this time around as he threw himself into tackles and carried with intent.

The Henley backs were able to get some front foot ball and moved it out wide to Will Cassar, who dodged the last defender to score in the corner.

Henley almost scored again just on the stroke of half-time when Max Titchener put Charlie Thomas in a massive hole, but the defence did make a fine cover tackle to prevent the score. The visitors led 26-7 at the interval.

Henley came out firing in the second half and were on the scoresheet with a penalty from 40 metres out from Matt Cooke. The Henley backs were in good shape, Tom David and Lailand Gordon were dangerous in space and were unlucky to be held up over the line.

From the resulting drop out, the ball found Guy Rawsthorn who sprinted back and spread the ball wide but Cassar was caught just short. The ball was recycled and Roan Noone was able to tip it on to a charging Rawsthorn who crashed over.

Henley, who were firmly on the front foot, had two opportunities to score, good breaks from David gave the first opportunity before a
50 metre break from Gordon was the next, but the final pass and offload didn’t reach the supporting player.

Cooke slotted another penalty to make the score 26-18 with 10 minutes remaining. However, as Henley tried to force the game they conceded two late tries. The first was from a line-out drive and the second from a breakaway run.

Henley’s first league defeat of the season saw them slip to third place in the table.