Survival mode kicked in for Amersham

On the day that their peers and club vice-presidents met for their annual lunch, Gsss were looking to put in a performance to impress, but at the end of two forty minute periods, the team that left the park with the win under their belt, Amersham and Chiltern, were more than worthy of the result.
The appointment of the three officials for the games for the second half of the season, should have been worthy of praise, as this is an area that, with club supporters/officials running touch, is open to abuse, but one has to question their ability to run the touch-line, when so often they appear not to know what they should be looking for. Perhaps training in this position would be an advantage for the future, as long as those doing the training have a basic knowledge of the laws.
From the kick-off Gsss took the game to Amersham, but were unable to make the early pressure count, as with one minute on the clock, a kick-able penalty was missed.
Six minutes in and the chance fell to scrum-half Morgan Thompson to put points on the board, this he did as he slotted over a penalty after just seven minutes, 0-3.
Berthelson had the opportunity to pull Gsss level after fifteen minutes but again shanked his kick past the uprights.
Good forward movement and inter-passing led to a great try for Tom Bird, so often the work horse at the breakdown, and the flanker ran in to touch down. The conversion was pulled wide by the breeze and the score moved to 5-3.
With good ball won, which tended to be the case throughout the early encounters, a break by Matt Skinner to take the play forward was complimented with a burst of pace from Temi Okenla that made the space for Scott Curly to race across the whitewash for the try.
At last a successful kick that edged Gsss 12-3 in front.
What was noticeable from the visitors forwards, was their desire to win possession and at every tackle, there were two men, one for the man and the next in for the ball. So often did they gain turn over possession, that this was possibly their best supply of ball.
A good pick and drive, inside Gsss twenty-two, saw the home side penalised for pulling down, and a penalty try awarded. The easy conversion was kicked by Thompson, to pull the visitors back into the game 12-10.
It was again slack defending that allowed an easy try success wide out on the left of the park that let Amersham in for their second touch-down, and had the conversion not been blown past the posts they would have been in a better position at the interval, 12-15.
With the break over, the loss of Chris Meddings, perhaps Gsss most dangerous player on the park as far as the visitors were concerned, the way was left open for an Amersham onslaught, but Gsss withstood the forward rush and defended admirably, only to see Callum Reid-Jones cross for the try, Thompson's coversion pushed the visitors advantage to 12-25.
Amersham must be given the credit they deserve for their defensive qualities as with a man down after Joe Winpenny was binned,
and the scrums went uncontested they kept Gsss out until the eightieth minute when, eventually Ziggy Stevens got the try that had eluded the team for the entire second half.
George Mongomery added the conversion that brought Gsss a bonus point what was deserved for those that had put their bodies on the line during the afternoon.
Overall Gsss performance was such that they should walked away with the result. Three good tries, some excellent line breaks, but this was coupled with a failure to keep possession and secure the ball at the breakdown.
Subjected once again to uncontested scrums when in attacking positions, leaves a question mark over the decision not to bring the miscreant prop back on and send another forward to the sidelines which would prevent the offending team gaining any advantage.