CHARD'S torrid National league 3 season continued on Saturday when they suffered a 41-11 defeat at Bournemouth who had been relegated from National league 2 at the end of last season.

With the current player crisis at the club, for the second time this season Chard turned up for a big match with only 16 players which immediately gave the opposition an advantage.

With eight rolling substitutions available to teams this year, Chard had lost a trump card before the game had begun.

The game started very evenly but Chard took the lead with a penalty from the boot of scrum half John Selway after ten minutes play.

This inspired Chard to play really well and for the next quarter Bournemouth were rocked by a rampant Chard pack who drove them backwards relentlessly and the home side were very fortunate not to concede.

Bournemouth then got into the Chard half and were immediately awarded a penalty goal of their own which brought the scores level.

Bournemouth quickly lost a player to the bin and Selway put Chard in front again from the resultant penalty.

Twenty eight minutes had passed and with Chard well on top and the home side a player down it looked odds on that Chard would take advantage and build up a half time lead.

But in a crazy passage of play – and totally against the run of play – Chard conceded two converted tries in as many minutes.

Initially Chard’s lack of a kicking back was exposed when an attempted clearance kick went astray and with players caught out of position Bournemouth counter- attacked and went over for the first try of the match.

Almost from the restart Bournemouth took advantage of some poor tackling by Chard and went over for another score.

One of Chards problems was circumstances dictated several players were playing in unaccustomed positions and this itself led to understandable defensive frailties.

Bournemouth had been outplayed for most of the first half but got to the interval with a 17-6 advantage and even the most fervent of their fans could not believe what they had witnessed.

Chard lost prop Nick Hylop early in the second half with a knee injury and he was replaced by Dave Biss.

A couple of other players were clearly suffering from knocks but with no replacements now available they had to shoulder on.

In a brave attempt to chase the game Chard made a number of handling errors and also lost the outstanding Jason Wright to the bin when he was adjudged to be guilty of killing the ball at a ruck.

Bournemouth ran in two more tries in the third quarter of the game before Chard gained some success which not surprisingly came from the outstanding work of their pack in which Alan Henly, Luke Aplin, and Ryan Helliar had particularly strong games.

The referee awarded Chard a penalty try after several illegal attempts by the home side to stop Chards forward momentum. Inexplicably the simple conversion was missed.

In the dying minutes, with Chard up against it, Bournemouth finished things off with two late tries .

Chard got promoted on merit last season and despite the difficult start to the year Chard coaches Steve Broome and Simon Jenkins firmly believe they can turn things round especially when key members of the squad (including Jenkins) return from injury.

Chard also have high hopes of adding some new faces shortly, including a backs player coach.

Chard have another very tough but attractive fixture this weekend when they entertain Brixham at 3pm.

Chard: Harrison, Stead, Douglas, J Massey, Selway, Riley,Mays, Hyslop, Robinson, Aplin, Gosden, Henly, Wright, Parsons, Biss, Helliar.

n Chard 2nds are away at Bridgwater on Saturday while the Colts are away at Wells. Chard 3rds are without a game.