Holmes Chapel 10 - 10 Capenhurst

The 1st XV took on Capenhurst last Saturday at Station Road in a full-blooded encounter that finished with the sides sharing the points. Capenhurst arrived on the back of an impressive run of form and had already beaten Chapel back in November so the home side knew they would be in for a tough match as they tried to keep their promotion push alive. Mark Concar started in the front row after impressing in the comfortable win over Knutsford the previous weekend, and Jed Wragg was also back in the starting line-up on the right wing.

With the game played in weather conditions that made running and handling very difficult, both sides were keeping the ball tight, with few chances created in the opening 15 minutes. It was clear that Capenhurst’s main weapon was their scrum as they put pressure on Chapel, who were struggling to win clean ball from the set piece. The visitors edged ahead with a penalty after 20 minutes, and were showing why they are such a difficult team to beat – tackling well and using their pack to good effect. On the few occasions that Chapel won quality set piece ball they looked dangerous, however too many passes were not going to hand and the chances were wasted. Kristain Clowes went close with a penalty attempt from the touch-line but Chapel remained 3 points adrift. Following a period of pressure near the Capenhurst line, the viistors’ Number 8 was sin-binned for killing the ball, leaving Chapel with an extra man for 10 minutes. They were unable to turn this advantage into points until a great run by Wragg set up the first try of the game. The winger received the ball and beat 2 defenders before offloading to Doug Canavan in support who scored the try. This time Clowes made no mistake with his kick and added the extra 2 points to give Chapel a 7-3 lead at half time.

The game remained a scrappy affair in the second half but the intensity of the forward battle never let up as both teams knew the result could go either way. Neither side was able to find the fluency required to score further points, however, and the game entered the final quarter with no change to the half time score-line. Capenhurst had their second player sent to the sin-bin for dissent, after they felt one of the players had been high-tackled, and although Chapel dominated territory during this period, they still couldn’t break down the determined defensive line of their opponents. Eventually, just as the sin-bin period was ending, some good mauling work by the pack gave Andy Fyffe the opportunity to drop a goal and extend the lead to 7 points. With 10 minutes to go, Capenhurst began to throw everything at the home side and 5 minutes from time their winger went over in the left corner to make the score 10-8. Their kicker stepped up and nailed a brilliant touch-line conversion to level the scores. Chapel restarted the game looking to find a winning score from somewhere, but it was their opponents who went closest to snatching the game at the death. The final whistle went with Chapel defending deep in their own half to leave both sides with a point.

Overall this was probably a fair result, although both sides will feel they could have won the match. Capenhurst have taken 3 points off Chapel this season, and look like a side who could well challenge for promotion next season on the form they have shown over the 2 matches.

Chapel will now put this behind them and look forward to next week’s game at Parkonians in South Lancashire / Cheshire 3. Chapel beat the men from the Wirral earlier this season in the Cheshire Plate, but Parkonians are much improved since then and will fancy their chances of sneaking into the promotion race. Chapel need to stay positive and remember that they are still very much in the frame for promotion and have still not lost a league game since early November last year.

The 2nd XV also had a disappointing weekend, losing on the road to Acton Nomads 31-7 with Dan Martin scoring their only try. They travel to Whitchurch on Saturday in the cup.

Holmes Chapel RUFC would like to thank C4 Consulting for sponsoring the 1st XV matchday, as well as Wymans Ltd and Hopewiser Ltd for their continued support.