South West Division 1
Chard 29, Newent 12

CHARD shocked the team sitting third in South West Division 1 for their first victory of the season.

Chard got off to the best possible start, scoring two tries in the first five minutes, both the result of winning scrum ball.

The opening try came after they turned over a scrum on the visitors' 22 and Chard fly-half Naani sliced through the Newent defence to run in under the posts, before slotting the easy conversion.

The Chard second try was a brilliant individual effort from scrum-half Blok Siljeur who ran from inside his own half to score out wide after his pack had again stolen Newent ball at the scrum.

Ten minutes later visiting winger George Phelps crashed over in the corner for Newent’s opening score. Tom Webb kicked the difficult conversion from the touchline and Newent were back in the game at 12-7.

Chard increased their lead on the half hour mark when again Newent lost the ball and the scrum half scored his second try which, with the successful conversion, took them into a 19-7 lead going in for half time, but not before Matt Tinley saw red for an infringement.

Early in the second half Newent found some momentum in the scrum but the ball was not controlled at the back and went loose, allowing Chard to kick ahead and touch down for their bonus-point try from Gorby. The conversion was good, taking Chard into a 26-7 lead.

Chard player Will Hopkinson saw yellow and Chard were down to 13 with half an hour still to play but Newent began to get very frustrated and started to give away a lot of penalties which eventually led to Ross Webb being sin-binned after a team warning from the referee.

Chard slotted a penalty with 10 minutes remaining to extend their lead.

Newent didn't give up and pressed right until the end, scoring the final try of the game just before they were reduced to 14 men with their player getting a second yellow card.

Chard ran out deserved winners by 29 points to 12.