CHARD RUGBY REPORT FOR SATURDAY 9TH DECEMBER 2006  FROM  GLYN HUGHES

This was certainly not the best weekend for Chard with the 1st xv cup game being cancelled and both the 2nd and 3rd teams going down to defeat.
 Chard 1st xv were due to play away to  Bristol side Imperial in the 2nd round of the Somerset Cup on Sunday but Imperial contacted the club on Saturday morning with the news that their pitch was waterlogged. There is no news as yet as to when the game will be re-played.

Wimborne 10pts Chard 2nd xv 8pts (Dorset and Wilts league 2 south )

Not for the first time this season the 2nd xv  lost a game which they could well have won. Things started badly when one of the squad failed to appear and after waiting for some time the team left without him. This late departure from Chard meant that the team only arrived at Wimborne 15mins. before kick off and to add to their woes the shirts had been left behind in Chard!!
Wimborne came to the rescue with a spare set of kit and the game got underway. Understandably Chard were slow to settle and Wimborne had the best of the early exchanges. Chard looked good in patches but they played into the hands of the home side by making a lot of handling errors and keeping the ball too close to the very experienced home forwards. After 15mins play Wimborne broke through some Chard tackles and went ahead with a converted try. The game was fairly evenly contested but Chard were giving away a lot of penalties and it was inevitable that they would eventually get punished. Just before half time  Wimborne increased their lead from a penalty and led 10pts to nil at half time.
Chard brought on both their replacements at half time with Richard(rocket) Jones replacing Richard Lovelock in the front row and newcomer Jordon Issacs coming on for the injured David Baker. Chard had most of the game in the second half and could have reduced the deficit immediately but missed a straight forward penalty in front of the posts.
 Chard were beginning to expand their play and Issacs was controlling things well from flyhalf. He made a lot of ground with some astute kicks and got Chard on the scoreboard with a penalty. Almost immediately he made a useful break and Herbert went over for an unconverted try in the corner. With  20mins. to go Chard looked to be on the way to victory but a lack of organisation and some wrong options resulted in their efforts being stifled and Wimborne held on for a narrow win. Better preparation would no doubt have given Chard victory but never the less an enjoyable game for all concerned and it is not often that a game at this level is refereed by an official from the Guinness premiership!

Chard 3rd xv 22pts  Bridport 2nd xv 32pts

 Chard were 22pts down in no time and appeared to have no answer to the youthful Bridport side.
 However the experienced members of the Chard side (of which there were many !!) decided  a policy of keeping the ball tight had to be the answer and as a result they began to control the tempo of the game.
Chard came back with tries from Wayne Lewis 2 Crawford Morton and Clive Adams with Lewis adding a conversion to put some respectability into the scoreline but the bottom line is that Chard were unable to catch up with some of the opposition!!

Next Saturday:- CHARD 1ST XV AWAY AGAINST NAILSEA AND BACKWELL(LEAGUE)
                          CHARD 2NDXV AT HOME TO SALISBURY LEAGUE)
                          CHARD 3RD  XV AWAY V HONITON 3RDS
ALL GAMES KO AT 2.30PM