AN under-strength Thornbury endured a difficult afternoon on Saturday as they were on the wrong end of a 48-5 thrashing by Chippenham, writes Dave Fox.

The hosts were after revenge following their defeat at Rockhampton earlier in the season and they got it with a rampant second-half display.

Thornbury kicked off and hooker Jamie Fallon made a fine break but after the ball was recycled, Thorns were turned over and Chippenham cleared. They took play into the Thornbury half where the match remained for the next twenty minutes.

Thornbury’s defence was stretched and they struggled to clear their lines. They were hanging on, but the defence eventually succumbed to pressure early in the second quarter when the centre kicked over Thornbury’s defence, gathered the ball and skipped out of a couple of despairing tackles to score a converted try.

Mike Gaston led a dangerous attack deep into Chippenham territory after the restart but as the ball was moved wide, a poor pass lost possession. Shortly afterwards, a counter-attack saw Chippenham score a second converted try and and a third just before the half-time whistle made it 19-0 at the break.

Although Thornbury’s defence had been excellent at the start of the game, it didn’t get going at the start of the second half.

Chippenham’s Benjamin Thyer scored a try after some poor tackling after three minutes but a quick response from Thornbury saw Mike Priday gather the restart in the air before charging forwards and diving over to reduce the lead.

But that was as good as it would get for the visitors as they turned on the style. Chippenham added a penalty before Keir Clark slalomed his way through some indifferent tackling on a sixty-metre run for another converted try and Chippenham were out of sight.

Three minutes later, they scored again when the ball bounced fortuitously into the arms of the centre who scored his second try.  Chippenham led 41-5 and the match was still in the third quarter.

The Thornbury scrum had been able to hold the much bigger Chippenham eight in the first half but had a real hiding from them in the second.

Chippenham dominated every facet of play and scored a final try which took the score to 48-5.

Thornbury play their final league match of the season in a fortnight when home to Devizes. Kick off on April 6 at 3pm.