CHINNOR took the play-off race into the final weekend when producing a brilliant comeback to beat Taunton Titans 38-29.

The Thame-based club looked out of sorts as they trailed by 12 points at the break, but ran in five tries in the second half to extend their unbeaten home record to 20 games.

It leaves Chinnor third and still behind Old Elthamians, who beat Cinderford, due to fewer victories in National League 2 South.

They now need to pick up more points than the London club this weekend.

Chinnor knew only a bonus-point victory would do against Taunton.

They opened the scoring on eight minutes when No 8 Tom Burns peeled off a scrum to dive over. Jonny Bentley converted.

Chinnor were unable to add to their total in a dominant ten-minute spell and the visitors were on to dominate the half.

Gary Kingdom missed a penalty, before Taunton capitalised on a below-par showing from Chinnor.

A catch-and-drive led to hooker Jon Gatford grounding on 26 minutes.

Alex Bradley was sin-binned for Chinnor and it was soon 14-7 when No 8 Aaron Gibbs raced over.

Kingdom converted both.

Titans deservedly made it 19-7 at half-time when Gatford scored his second – a carbon copy of his first – which went unconverted.

Chinnor needed to step up a gear and they more than delivered.

Burns forced his way over for an unconverted try five minutes after the restart and, despite Kingdom’s penalty making it 22-12, there was only one team in it.

Nick Mason deliberately knocked on Greg Goodfellow’s pass, leading to a penalty try and yellow card for the Taunton centre.

Bentley added the extras.

Titans were on the ropes and Chinnor scored three tries in 14 minutes.

Charlie Broughton, Danny Barnes and Jamie Townsend crossed, with Bentley and Goodfellow adding a conversion each to make it 38-22.

Titans pressed late on and Lewis Webb crashed over on 80 minutes.

A melee delayed Kingdom’s conversion, but Chinnor had done more than enough to keep themselves in the play-off hunt.

Henley Hawks ran in eight tries to beat Barnstaple 52-27 at home.

The hosts raced into a 17-0 lead, thanks to tries from Tom Emery, Sam Portland and Xavier Andre.

Barnstaple’s Joe Petheridge kicked a penalty, but it was 24-3 after 23 minutes when David Hyde scored.

But the visitors reduced the deficit to two points at half-time as Will Topps (2) and Toby Williamson crossed, with Petheridge converting twice.

After the break, Hawks added four tries, through Harry Burn, Rob Bell, Marcus Lowe and Albon, to extend their lead to 52-24

Liam O’Neill converted all four, adding to his two previous successful kicks.

Barnstaple never gave up and scored late on when Kevin Angel went over.