Henley Colts' Knapman scores last-gasp winner

HOME side Amersham and Chiltern Colts were crowned OBB Division 2 champions on Sunday but were on the losing end of the scoreline for the first time this season as second-placed Henley Colts ran out narrow winners.

Amersham and Chiltern won the league by two points, with both sides ending the campaign with nine wins each from their respective 10 matches played.

The hosts came out of the blocks quickly as Henley conceded two early tries, first from a couple of missed tackles before then having to deal with an unstoppable rolling maul. In this time, they also lost centre Josh Everett to ankle injury leading to Henley have to reshuffle their back line.

When Henley were finaly able to get some possession they used their speedy backs to good affect with Harry Beesley, now in the centre, making a 40m break.

Marlowe Rundle was next to make a dent in the Amersham defence. This took Henley up to the red zone where the ball was recycled quickly and then swung out to Ben Smith who found Etienne Brooks who crashed over.

Soon afterwards, in similar fashion, Henley worked their way up to the red zone once more and it was Luca Coleman the bowled his way over the line. Amersham stopped the momentum and pulled a score back to give them a 19-10 lead at half-time.

Henley started the second half strongly, and almost scored straight away only to be denied by a scramble in defence. Soon after Henley converted their pressure with Rundle powering his way over the line.

Henley were oozing confidence and it was a break by Jonty Savage down the right wing that led to the next score. The ball was recycled well and it was Smith and Coleman who combined well to see Brooks dart over for his second try of the game.

The visitors then lost a player to the sin bin, playing with a man down for seven minutes. Amersham took advantage of this and scored to retake the lead by two points with five minutes to play.

Amersham took play to within five meters of the Henley line, but the visitors were able to force the knock on and had a scrum on their own five-minute line.

Henley won a scrum penalty with a minute to play and Jack Bradbury tapped and found Coleman, who found Smith who set off and drew the defence to find Tom Knapman kicked it forward. The chase was good and Henley forced a mistake leading to a scrum in the red zone with the last play of the game. Rundle picked the ball up from the base of the scrum and made yards, the ball was recycled and moved by Bradbury who found Coleman who passed to Beesley who threw a miss pass to Knapman who sprinted into the gap to dive into the corner and seal the win for Henley.