Chester 44 – 29 Lymm

In what was a highly anticipated local derby, between two sides whose rivalry goes back many years, Lymm travelled 30 minutes up the M56 to Chester, making a nice change from Devon and Cornwall.

Lymm currently lie 7^th in National 2 West with 37 points from 7 wins from 13 games and Chester lie 10^th with 32 points from 5 wins, so a close encounter was envisaged, despite Lymm having beaten Chester on the last three previous occasions.

Both teams have been moved sideward this season from National 2 North, although Chester played in this league two seasons ago, much to their annoyance, so knew what to expect from their long-distance fixtures.

Changes had been made to the Lymm side following the 33-43 home loss to Cinderford last week. Alfie Simpson came off the bench to start at fly- half, for his 50^th cap, with Jack Reynolds moving to centre, Joe Higgins came back in the front row, and Oli Higginson started at No 8.

Chester shot out of the blocks and got the scoreboard ticking over after 90 seconds of play, with scrum half Tom Ellis scoring near the posts to make it 7 – 0. Lymm replied in kind after 5mins as they worked an overlap for right wing Joe Heaton to dive over in the corner. 7 – 5 and game on!

From loose play, Chester’s prop then broke through to score near the posts, from 20m out and it was 14 – 5 after 8mins.

This porous defence became something of a running theme for Lymm and, following a yellow card for hooker James Pitcher, Chester took full advantage to extend their lead to 19 – 5 after 15mins with the fly half scoring wide out on the right.

Chester’s defence, in contrast, looked pretty secure as Lymm tried, in vain, to get back on terms but an attacking line out 5m from Lymm’s line enabled the hosts to extend their lead even further to 26 – 5 after 24mins from a rolling maul, with the successful conversion.

Lymm finally started to look a little more cohesive as they put some moves together and, after two attacking line-outs 5m from Chester’s line, the well-executed rolling maul put replacement hooker Rob Makin over after 32 mins with the added conversion. 26 – 12.

Despite a period of domination Lymm failed to score again before half time and the travelling support were disconsolate the scores were not closer as the ref blew.

Half time: Chester 26 – 12 Lymm

Lymm started brightly and got another rolling maul try from Makin on 44mins but the conversion was missed 26 -17. Chester returned the favour with their own rolling maul try edging out to 31 – 17 after 50mins.

The supporters thought the next score would be crucial and a kicked clearance from full back Cal Morris was well fielded by the Chester backline who broke through Lymm’s defence with some ease and took the lead to 38 – 17, after 50mins, with the successful conversion.

At this point a level of gloom descended over the travelling support and then the prodigal son, fly half replacement Tom Shard entered the field of play. A superb 50 – 20 kick from Shard immediately put Lymm into the ideal spot for yet another attacking line-out and rolling maul try as Rob Makin went over for his hat trick and a four-try bonus point. 38 – 22 after 63mins.

Try as they might, Lymm could not close the gap to any significant degree and two penalties from Chester took the score to 44 – 22 until replacement second row James Yates charged over, following a series of fierce bursts from a number of Lymm forwards. This was converted taking the final score to 44 – 29 and a deserved victory from the more controlled and clinical hosts.

Full time: Chester 44 – 29 Lymm

Director of Rugby Adam Fletcher had this to say,’A disappointing day. We made too many errors and missed too many tackles, which meant we gifted Chester far too many opportunities. They took advantage of this and deserved the win.

‘We’ll use the break to regroup and put a few things right before we play Redruth at home on Saturday 10th January (ko 2pm)’, he concluded.

Team: 1.Joe Higgins* (32) 2.James Pitcher* (103) 3.Dal Ngoma (11) 4.James Yates* (146) 5.Ben Thompson (61) 6.Rhys Lilly* (84) 7.Josh Hadland* (71) 8.Oli Higginson* (291) 9.Tom Manaton (37) 10.Alfie Simpson* (50) 11.Paddy Jennings* (91) 12.Jack Reynolds (45) 13.Ste Pilkington* (94) 14.Joe Heaton* (9) 15.Cal Morris (76) 16.Tom Elphick (2) 17.Rob Makin* (97) 18.Max Ure* (9) 19.Sam Wickes (12) 20.Tom Shard* (156).