Moment of truth: ‘If we win we’ll stay up, if they win they’ll stay up’ (From Bucks Free Press)

Amersham facing do-or-die clash on last day

10:30am Friday 20th April 2012 in Sport By Alan Feldberg

AMERSAM & Chiltern have inves- ted 2,000 match minutes of blood and sweat into their first season of national competition.

To make sure it doesn’t end in tears only a win will do tomorrow.

The problem is, the exact same is true for the team they’re playing against.

With three clubs dropping out of National League 3 South West, third-from-bottom Amersham go to fourth-from-bottom Old Redcliff- ians knowing only one will survive.

Amersham’s director of rugby Matt Allen said: “It should be a hell of a game. If we win we’ll stay up, if they win they’ll stay up.”

Going into the game, there are just two points between the sides with a 28-point drop-off to the next side down.

Each has won seven of their 25 league games so far with the only difference being a Redcliffians draw against an Amersham defeat.

Allen said: “There isn’t much between the two sides. It will be a close game.

“They beat us by five points at our place, but that was our first game of the season and we’ve improved massively since then – as I’m sure they have.

“We’re both going to be massively up for it, but it’s just whoever keeps their composure; whoever keeps calm and makes the right decisions; and whoever looks after the ball in the right areas. We’ve got to not let the ocassion get the better of us.”

Amersham have a good pedigree on that front in recent seasons and if it comes down to nerve again they can afford to approach the game with some confidence.

Allen said: “We’ve played in big games, we’ve just won a cup final, which was a very big day for the club, and we’ve played play-off games and in last games of the season when we’ve had to win. The guys have got a lot of nerve.”

Amersham go into the match in decent shape after a much-improved performance against Exmouth last weekend.

They went down 22-15, but after conceding 49 points to Oxford Harlequins in their previous game it was a big step forward.

Charlie Bond and Ross Bugden both scored the tries to earn their side a bonus point which could yet prove vital ahead of tomorrow’s crunch fixture.

Allen said: “I love games like this, this is why you play rugby. Some teams, their season has been over since mid-February.

“They’ve got nothing left to play for apart from boring mid-table games. I’d rather it be a promotion game obviously, but we have to play right until the end of the season.”

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