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PREVIEWING OUR OPPONENTS: CHINNOR

PREVIEWING OUR OPPONENTS: CHINNOR

Rich Ashton9 Feb 2023 - 13:00

An insight into our neighbours' recent form, historical clashes, players to watch and more!

Year Founded: 1962

Nickname: The Villagers

Ground: Kingsey Road (Capacity 2,000)

This season: Ninth (P16 W6 D1 L9 TB6 LB9 Pts 38)

Last season: Seventh (P28 W12 D1 L15 TB18 LB7 Pts 70 [inc five-point deduction])

Past five games against RAMS:

Chinnor 30-46 RAMS

Chinnor 43-40 RAMS (April, 2022)

RAMS 38-22 Chinnor (March, 2022)

Chinnor 17-21 RAMS (January, 2020)

RAMS 27-21 Chinnor (September, 2019)

Recent Form: Strong.

The arrival of former England ace Nick Easter as Director of Rugby has seen a sharp upturn in form, with the Thame men having grabbed three five-point wins since the turn of the year.

On Saturday they downed Bishop's Stortford 33-29 on the back of a 28-12 defeat at fortress Plymouth Albion.

However, that followed a 37-29 success at Birmingham Moseley, a result which came on the back of one of the most eye-catching results of the campaign - a 48-12 home demolition of Rosslyn Park in which they scored all of their points unanswered after falling behind early on.

Prior to that, Chinnor grabbed an important 29-15 bonus-point win at Hull, having pushed high-flying Cambridge close in a 31-27 defeat shortly after previous DoR Richard Thorpe departed.

A disappointing 41-33 loss at home to Esher had preceded that – albeit the Eees now have three wins in four – while Chinnor gained an excellent 10-10 draw at Cinderford in Week Nine.

The Thame-based side had lost 37-18 at home to Sale, won 31-21 at Taunton Titans and been beaten 30-22 by visitors Plymouth Albion in the three weeks beforehand.

Chinnor endured a tough start to the season with further defeats coming at Leeds Tykes (27-24) and Rosslyn Park (42-14), at home to RAMS (46-30) and on the opening day at Darlington Mowden Park (23-16), their only joy being a Round Four home triumph against Birmingham Moseley (38-21).

Players to Watch:

Willie Ryan – Acting captain is a big ball-carrier and was named in the National One Team of the Season for 2021/22.

The back row has a wealth of Championship experience having spent two seasons at Rotherham Titans plus time at Ealing Trailfinders, Doncaster Knights and Nottingham, while he has also amassed more than 50 Chinnor caps during two spells at Kingsey Road.

Will Feeney – Versatile Austalian is capable of playing at full-back, centre or fly-half having joined Chinnor early in the season from Hunter Wildfires in the Shute Shield, the top club competition in New South Wales.

Made his debut off the bench at Leeds before starting the next three games at 12, going on to take over-the fly-half jersey for his side’s past four fixtures and grabbing his first try against Esher before following up with another at Cambridge.

Has further established himself at fly-half since, starting all four games in 2023 and taking his try tally to three.

Jason Worrall – Former South Africa Under 20s three-quarter has proved a superb addition to Chinnor since switching from Jersey Reds at the start of the 2019/20 campaign.

Finished as joint National One try-scorer with 18 and a spot in the Team of the Season before adding four more last term, picking up the pace this time out with 12 in 15 appearances to date to lead the way for his side.

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Further reading