The Saturday afternoon started off strangely, a bad patch on the Holmes Chapel pitch led the referee to deem it unplayable, despite the valiant effort of the HCRUFC grounds collective. Some urgent phone calls meant we were able to relocate the match last minute to Congleton Rugby Club where the 2nd team happened to be playing as well. This led to a convoy of cars heading down the road, and extensive gratitude owed to our new hosts.
But onto more important things, the rugby! Chapel had a chance to progress their challenge on a promotion spot and extend their unbeaten run of matches to 8. Liverpool Collegiate were the challengers, and although the game had a scrappy element to it, Chapel were able to start well with Tom Chambers pouncing on a loose ball and running the ball over the line unopposed: Score 5:0.
The boys in blue were putting some good passages of play together, however a few chances went begging which led to nothing being scored. However Conor Gavin was able to end the drought after clambering over the LC defence and crossing the whitewash. This was quickly followed by another try, this time for skipper Dom Moss who picked up at the back of the scrum and sped through the gap that opened up for him. Andy Davies slotted the conversion: Score 17-0.
Chapel finished the 1st half strongly with prolific try score Luke Cheetham man-shaming his opposite winger and scoring in the corner. Luke extended his lead as top try scorer this season with 13 overall; Tom Chambers has his work cut out to catch him up. Half time score: 22-0
The second half started with a yellow card for centre Mike Lightfoot who could justifiably feel disgruntled by the decision. This set the tone for the second half as Chapel had next to no possession, and a string of penalties led Liverpool Collegiate to be camped in Holmes Chapel’s half. However, Chapels defence was resilient and well organised, and no matter how many times the opposition ran at them, they kept on getting knocked back.
In the last 5 minutes of the game Chapel were able to end their frustrating half positively after a move off the back of the scrum led to Harry Dyson spotting a gap through the middle and run under the posts to score. Andy Davies got the conversion to finish the match. Final Score 29-0.
A frustrating match at times but with positives to take away from it, in particular the outstanding defence displayed throughout the match, a testament to the work done on defence in training.
Man of the match goes to flanker Dan Partington for leading that defence from the front.