CHIPPENHAM U15s booked their place in the final of the Bristol Combination Cup with a 37-5 success over Clevedon at Allington Field.

The home side were expecting an extremely tough encounter, particularly with fly-half Taylor a new addition to the injury list, and Clevedon didn’t disappoint in what was, at times, a niggly match.

However it was Chippenham who got off to the better start, running the ball at Clevedon and immediately putting the defence to the test. The Chippenham forwards were much more positive in their approach to the rucks than in recent games and it wasn’t long before the ball was cleared out of the breakdown, through several sets of hands to Parry who sprinted up the right wing and over the line to open the scoring.

However the windy conditions left Treacy with an extremely difficult conversion attempt, which blew across the front of the posts. This early score cleared the cobwebs from Clevedon and there followed a period of sustained pressure as they moved into the Chippenham half and set up camp on the 22.

They tried every way to break through the defence, testing both forwards and backs but could not make it pay.

They eventually gave away a penalty and Chippenham took the opportunity to rumble the ball upfield through several phases of play until the ball was passed out to Brown, who ran from the halfway line through a number of despairing tackles to place the ball in the corner.

Play wasn’t pretty and, on occasion, spilled over into niggly arguments but Chippenham held it together and continued to apply pressure while not giving Clevedon an opportunity to make any headway.

Campbell added Chippenham’s third try of the morning but the swirling wind continued to make the conversion almost impossible.

Clevedon were unlucky not to score when they spun the ball out of a ruck and broke through a gap in the middle of the field.

However Moore, having moved to the full-back position, tracked back in double-quick time and managed to roll the Clevedon runner on the tryline and prevent the touchdown.

From the ensuing five metre scrum though, Chippenham were expecting the ball to go out wide but the Clevedon scrum-half, Tucker, saw a gap open up and sneaked through to bring the score at half-time to 15-5.

In the second half, Chippenham continued to push forward but, when they lost possession, Clevedon threatened to break down the wing on several occasions and it was only some forceful tackling that prevented them from progressing.

The Chippenham forwards were still battling and it was prop Atkin, who scored the fourth of the morning, hurling himself over the line from close range.

Chippenham repeatedly turned over the ball at the breakdown, giving fly-half Treacy the opportunity to release the backline, and pace combined with good hand skills meant gaps started to open up and next over the line to score was Wild.

The niggles at the breakdown continued and threatened to overtake the match but, after some stern words from the referee, both teams settled back to the task in hand and, again, it was Chippenham who maintained their composure.

They quickly added two further tries, from Graham and Blundell.

With conditions improving, Treacy successfully converted to add another two points to the scoreline.

Clevedon battled hard, particularly down the right wing where their pacy winger repeatedly ran at the defence, but Chippenham closeed out the match.

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