Home Stretch For Chapel

Saturday 27th February saw the table toppers take a visit to Linley and Kidsgrove for their return fixture on a cloudy afternoon. Chapel were missing some key players this week, including Captain Dom Moss which saw Vice Tom Chambers captaining the team.

With a strong home win last time, Chapel were determined not to let this get to their head and play a strong game of rugby to secure another 3 points to further their lead.

The game started a physical one, with both sides playing a strong defensive and and offensive side. Chapel were putting in good work with the forwards before shipping it out to the backs. Handling errors cost the side and play was heated as Linley began to strike back, only to be stopped at the hands of the Chapel defensive side. Some good ball saw Chapel into the opposite sides 22, before some good crash ball saw Dave Steer crash over the line from a pass out to score for Chapel. Conversion missed. 1st Half ended, 5-0

The second half got underway with Chapel determined to put more points on the board. With a reduction in the errors and some good play out, chapel saw themselves scoring again with Callum Grant-Smith taking it over the whitewash. The restart came and Chapel were back on the offensive, some great defensive work saw the ball turned over and Mark McEnaney taking the ball over the line for Chapel’s third try. Off again for Chapel, but Linley were determined to fight back, putting some good pressure on the boys in blue, edging their way towards another score. They fought valiant and pressure was high which saw Luke ‘Groundhog’ Day being binned for scrapping. The pressure was on the rest of the team now to pick up the work and stay defensive for the remainder of the game with a 14 man squad. Chapel managed to get the ball once again and with some good crash ball, back play and offload work saw Matt Lawrence put another 5 points on the board for Chapel. Coming into the closing minutes of the game now, Chapel back on the defensive as Linley strive to claim some points back from the visiting side. Chapel proved to much for them, turning the ball over and getting it out which lead to local all star CG4 (Conor Gavin) taking the ball over the line for Chapels final try of the day. The game finished 31-0

In summary, a physical game with great effort shown by both sides and the boys and the club would like to thank Linley for the game and for playing in good spirits. A big thanks also goes to all of our sponsors. Man of the match was Callum Grant-Smith for his physicality on and off the ball.