Western Counties (W)

Cullompton 17, Chard 24

A large number of Chard supporters travelled to the excellent Cullompton club and witnessed another terrific second half performance which brought victory thanks to a last-gasp try from Ryan Helliar, writes Glyn Hughes.

Helliar's try gave his team a bonus point win that had looked highly unlikely after an error-strewn first half performance.

Chard won the toss and chose to play down the slight slope in the first half but against a strong breeze which would prove pivotal to their efforts in the second half.

Chard started very poorly and their usually strong compact scrummage was upstaged by the hosts.

Cully ran the ball well from the off and took an early lead when they made the most of some poor tackling to burst through a huge gap and score a fine try with hooker Chris Grant getting the touchdown.

Winger Josh Luxon added the extras.

It was not long before Cullompton doubled their lead with a similar effort this time from lock forward Andrew Hayball which was again converted by Luxon.

Several Chard players, including Billy Brooks and Ben Stead, suffered injuries which required off the field treatment and resulted in positional and personnel changes.

Chard rarely looked like scoring in the first half and went in 14-0 down.

In the second half, Chard dominated territorially and in terms of possession but they had to wait until the 54th minute before troubling the scoreboard operator.

It was appropriate that front row Ben Robinson, who had a very good game, popped up to take the try scoring pass and score wide out on the left.

Paul Nicholls narrowly missed the conversion.

Shortly afterwards, Robinson showed his strength and determination to score his second try of the game.

Despite missing the conversion, Chard were now on a roll and looked a completely different side.

More good forward play set up an opportunity for Ben Thomas, who jinked through under the posts for a converted try.

This score put Chard ahead for the first time but straight from the restart the difficult conditions resulted in the ball being knocked on.

When a player in front of the ball played it, Chard were rightly penalised for being off side and Luxon stepped up to level the scores.

With the seconds ticking away, Chard gained a lot of ground with a huge kick to the corner.

They won good possession and, after a series of forward drives, the ball found Helliar.

There would only be one outcome and Helliar obliged with a superb try, converted by Thomas, which sent the Chard fans wild and broke the hearts of the Cully faithful in a crowd of more than 200.

Chard are not the best starters but they have proved time and again they never give up.

The lineouts were much improved and good use of the rotation rules by coach Jon Hendy was clearly a vital factor which was well illustrated by the impact performance of Max Gosden in the second half.

On Saturday, Chard are at home against Falmouth who have improved a lot in recent weeks and got a stunning victory over Bideford last weekend.

The game between the sides at Falmouth was drawn so Chard will be very keen to go one better this time round. Kick off is at 2.30pm.

Chard: Stead, Edwards, Brooks, Crouch, Szydelko, Thomas, Nicholls, Biss, Mainwaring, Robinson, Tinley(capt) Elliot, Wright, Riley, Helliar. Replacements:- Aplin, Gosden, Russo. (all used)

Somerset 2 (S)
Chard 2nds 69, Burnham-on-Sea 2nds 10

After an emphatic win the previous Saturday, Chard's Wing Commanders were hoping to carry on their good form as Burnham visited.

The team started well, with David Lock scoring a well worked back's try down the left wing. 

From the restart, the front five worked the ball up the pitch resulting in a powerful surge for Warren Lewis to score Chard's second. 

Another well worked backs move created space for Mat Coombs to run half of the pitch up the right wing to score another try and Adam Moore's score made it 24-0 at half-time. 

Five minutes into the second half, replacement Ben Partridge received the ball from scrum-half Dave Baker and powered through the two opposition centres to race through from the halfway line to under the posts. 

Chard fly half Sam Mouland was creating space all over the park and soon enough got his first of three tries, with Moore also going over again. 

Burnham didn't give up and scored two unconverted tries of their own. 

The Lewis brothers then combined for Arron Lewis to power through the Burnham defence and gain 35 yards before an unselfish pass to Baker to score. 

Baker's second rounded off the scoring at 69-10. 

Chard's man of the match was Sam Mouland for three tries and seven conversions.

On Saturday, Chard 2nds welcome Castle Cary.