RUGBY: Newton Abbot 29 Chippenham 25 (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

RUGBY: Newton Abbot 29 Chippenham 25

12:05pm Tuesday 4th September 2012 in Rugby

CHIPPENHAM emerged with two bonus points after narrowly coming out on the wrong end of a nine-try thriller in their opening Natiopnal Three South West clash of the season at Newton Abbot.

The contest ebbed and flowed throughout despite a long hold-up following an injury to Chippenham scrum-half Sam Alford.

Tries from Dean Avery and Lloyd Radford gave Abbott the edge has half-time approached but Sam Saunders clawed back three points with a penalty.

Chippenham hit back in the second half through tries from lock Sam Hill, making his debut, and Fraser Clilverd, Saunders converting once.

The visitors led 15-12, but Alford’s injury led to a delay and Abbot took advatage with two more tries from Radford and Eddie McGinley for a seven-point lead.

Chippenham broke blind after winning a scrum against the head to send wing Aminiasi Titoko over in the corner and with only two minutes play left, captain Bobby Lyons broke out wide to put them in front by three points.

However, the visitors failed to gather the restart and Abbot broke clear for McGinley to score the winning try, Rob Avery-Wright converting.

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