National Junior Vase Fourth Round

Chipstead 10

Crawley 5

ON a pitch used by the juniors because others were frozen and with their captain stuck in Wales in snow, Chipstead came from 5-0 down with 10 minutes left to progress to the South East quarter-finals of the National Junior Vase.

Coach Matt Kemp had assembled the team early on Saturday to brush the Christmas cobwebs away.

Several players were missing from the squad of 29, notably skipper Richard Cannon, stuck in the Principality. Charlie Gossington made the match with minutes to spare having travelled from France.

Both senior pitches were deemed unplayable, which left the junior pitch.

With Chipstead having a quick back line and with a debut appearance of Jordan Butt on the wing space was needed and the size of the pitch was not going to help.

Crawley started strongly and were going to enjoy not having to run around too much, using there power runners in tight spaces.

They put the hosts' defence under pressure from the start. Within five minutes Crawley's left wing stepped through the line to score. That left Chips in the unusual position of being behind, with them being first to score in many games this season.

Crawley continued the pressure throughout the first half and could have had 15 points had it not have been for handling errors.

Chipstead's backs were frustrated by the lack of width, wings Darren Lilly and Butt working hard in a tight area and making some good breaks. One found second row Alex Cannon in support of Jordan, but the final pass was missing.

The new half time plans of director of rugby Carl Powley – to change shirts, thus treating the second half as a new game – were not able to be put to test as the referee did not allow them into the changing rooms.

However, words from Kemp saw Chipstead facing a second half having to score, instead of a more customary big lead and only needing to defend.

They attacked the Crawley line in a very intense 40 minutes with Jimmy Ferris breaking through and about to put Butt under the posts. Cruelly, the pass was deemed forward.

Hooker Martyn Floodgate had his collar felt literally when he was pulled down feet from the line.

Crawley's frustration now came to the fore and scuffles erupted and they found themselves a man down. Chips kicked the penalty wide.

But they kept their heads and focused on the final 10 minutes and after a surge from Alex Cannon he dived under the posts.

With the score level and the pitch freezing over extra time would be difficult.

Ferris had his mind focused and the kick put them two points ahead. Chipstead camped in Crawley's half and in the dying minutes forced them to commit offence after offence and a penalty finally took Chipstead clear.