Capenhurst 16 – 22 Holmes Chapel

Capenhurst 16 – 22 Holmes Chapel

Holmes Chapel 1st XV earned a hard-fought win over Capenhurst last Saturday putting in a battling performance away from home. Skipper Mike Cottam again had to make changes to his starting line-up with flanker Dom Moss filling in at centre, and Mark Mcenaney and Jon Griffin both moving forward a row in the scrum from their usual positions.

Chapel shrugged off an early penalty miss to take the lead after Ed O’Hare cleverly chose to run back a Capenhurst clearance kick after spotting an overlap on the right hand side of the field. The ball was transferred to Lee Cagna who used his pace and strength to reach the line and dived over in the corner to put Chapel 5-0 up. The home side then wokeup and started to put pressure on Chapel’s defence, forcing a couple of penalties – both of them some way out and both of them excellently put away by the Capenhurst kicker. This had given Capenhurst a 1 point advantage which they extended after some great work from their outside half set up a try that was converted to see them go 13-5 ahead. A further penalty stretched the half time lead to 16-5 and Chapel knew they would be really up against it in the second half.

The visitors drew first blood after the break with Cagna scoring his second of the game, and this time Andy Fyffe added the extras to bring Chapel to within 4 points. The scrum, which had started the match under the cosh, began to hold their own and even nicked a Capenhurst put-in to give the forwards a boost as they continued to chase the game. With around 20 minutes remaining Cagna scored his third try of the afternoon beating several defenders to score beneath the posts, with Fyffe adding the simple conversion. A 3 point lead was never going to be enough against such an accurate kicker but when Chapel were awarded a penalty just inside the opposition half, Joe Maddock thumped the ball through the uprights to give them some breathing space. The home side still nearly snatched victory and launched wave after wave of attacks in the closing minutes, but the defence led by Tom Chambers and Simon Davies kept the door firmly shut and Chapel held on for a crucial victory.

This Saturday Chapel take on Buxton at Station Road. The Derbyshire side sit one place above them in the league table and are on the back of a thumping win over early season pacesetters Liverpool University. It will no doubt be another very tough game and all support is welcome (kick off 3pm).

HCRUFC would like to acknowledge the support of their sponsors. Please follow this link for more information on our sponsors - https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/holmeschapel/d/sponsors.html