CHINNOR head coach Jason Bowers has urged his players to build on a great season as they look ahead to life in National 2 South.

A 19-8 victory over Tonbridge Juddians in Saturday’s play-off ensured a third promotion in six years for the Thame club.

But having gone straight back down on each of the previous two occasions, Bowers knows they cannot afford to sit back.

He said: “Promotion means everything. We set out at the start of the season wanting to go up.

“We got to a position where our destiny was in our own hands.

“The club is 50 years old next year, so it will be fitting to be playing at the highest level we have ever been at.

“What we have to do now is build and bring it on and really work hard.

“I think the squad we have got is capable of holding our own.

“The challenge now is to maintain the level we showed in one game over a 30-game season.”

Centre Sam Stoop proved a key player after recovering from a ruptured posterior cruciate ligament that kept him out of most of the previous campaign.

He said: “We have now reaped the rewards of a lot of hard work.

“We are mates as well as teammates and we just have a great time.

“We said before we went out for the play-off, this is the last game of the season.

“There is no Tuesday to put things right if it goes wrong.

“We just have to stick together through thick and thin – and we did.

“I thought from one to 19, we were outstanding, but we are relieved.”

Stoop added: “It is a lovely club, I am not going anywhere else.

“I am going to play out my days here, however many days or months or weeks that are left.

“I have enjoyed it here and now there is a new challenge with a big step up, but I think we have the personnel to compete.”