Ironsides too strong for the Chips.

On Saturday 26th October, the Chipstead 2XV played away at Battersea Ironsides. However, due to some late cryoffs and a low availability of players, the team consisted of just 11 players.Thankfully, Ironsides were kind enough to lend 3 players per half to us which meant a fierce game of rugby could begin.

The conditions of the game were very wet and windy meaning there was a lot of dropped ball. This meant the game plan would have to be through good direct running and a solid set piece as always.

Over the match, the Ironsides XV scored a number of points using a strong kick and chase game, which seemed to have been something they had practiced. They had also used their extra man to go down the wing and make good use of any overlap. However, this didn’t always go to plan as Luke Steve intercepted a ball around the Chipstead 22 before running the length of the field. Sadly, he was tackled out of play in the corner, but this started to show a classic Chipstead comeback.

The first Chipstead try came from the skipper, APG, who finished off a great driving maul, showing a great collective effort from the forwards. This in turn helped to both galvanise and rally the team. Despite a great effort by Tom Morse, the try was not converted.

The 2nd Chipstead score came from Chey Dupe crashing through several defenders before powering over the line in the left hand corner. Luke Steve called to take the kick and with a tremendous effort, it hit the crossbar but without going through the posts. Not bad for his first kick from the tee.

Late in the second half, disaster struck as Dave Steve took a ball into contact and snapped his clavicle. Hopefully we will see him back on the pitch soon.

All in all, the cards were never in Chipstead’s favour with the final score being 42-10 to Battersea. Thank you to Battersea and the 6 players who put on a Chipstead shirt to make an incredible game of rugby occur in horrible conditions.

However, the attitude, resilience and heart from the Chipstead players was incredible. David Argent called the team “lions” and there is no better to describe them after how they played.

With a few more players, we could have strongly contended with the team now sat at the top of the table.