Chard 0-34 St Austell

Results in this division to date suggests quite strongly that whereas on their day most teams are capable of beating each other there are two sides that are currently looking much better than the rest with these being St Austell and Crediton.

Chard gave 100% on Saturday but in reality, they rarely looked like scoring against a much better all-round team. St Austell were a very efficient and well-organized outfit with talented players throughout the team but especially in the key positions. Their fly half Matt Shepherd who has played a lot of games at a much higher level was a case in point, and he ran the show. St Austell did the basics really well and never got into any real trouble as they were able to turn over possession and kick well tactically to pin Chard back in their own half whenever they looked in any trouble.

Chard started the game well enough, but the visitors went ahead with a penalty goal after 15 minutes or so. Chard had Dave Morton sent to the bin 25minutes into the game and shortly after St Austell took advantage and scored an opportunist unconverted try in the right-hand corner to increase their lead to 8 pts. They added a third try shortly before the interval.

Defensively Chard were very good in the first half with Matt Tinley in particular tackling superbly. Fin Shoemark was playing particularly well on the wing and made several useful breaks but despite all their endeavours the interval was reached with St Austell leading by 13pts to nil.

In the second half St Austell added three more tries with these coming from Shepherd 2 and Rob Jeffs. Shepherd successfully goaled all three tries. At least one of these came as a result of a good counterattack when Chard were made to pay for not finding touch.

At no point did Chard lessen their efforts and they deserve a lot of credit for playing as well as they could up to the final whistle.

Other results at the weekend illustrated the point that the other teams in this tough but excellent  league are all capable of beating each other and as a result Chard find themselves just above the relegation places. There is a long way to go though, and Chard will be hoping that their injured players will soon be back to bolster their squad.

Next Weekend Chard travel to play Sidmouth with the kick off expected to be at 2pm.