Match Report - Chester-Le-Street v. Richmondshire – 2nd November 2013 Richmondshire were the visitors to the Riverside this week as Chester-Le-Street looked to extend their winning run of form to three games unbeaten. Richmond struck first as they applied early pressure in the Chester half. After the Chester backline fumbled the ball, Richmond capitalised, putting together a number of phases and moving the ball through the pack until Chester were penalised for going off their feet at the breakdown. The away team took the penalty quickly, shifting men out to the blindside and after recycling the ball quickly, poor tackling allowed Richmond to cut inside and score close to the posts. The kicker made a solid conversion to make the score 0-7 to the visitors. Chester came back looking threatening on the ball, but they couldn’t seem to find the final key to unlock the Richmondshire defence. However, as the sun came out at the Riverside, so did the punishing Chester offence. After a successful lineout as a result of an excellent kick by fly-half, Burr, the host’s backline was able to stretch the opposition defence, making gains into the opposition twenty-two. Scrum-half, John Kirton was able to release the forwards who showed good cohesion to put together multiple phases. Eventually, second row, Carl Melvin demonstrated excellent strength to battle over the line from close range, scoring in the corner. Burr was unable to convert a difficult kick meaning Chester were still behind at 5-7. The home team now appeared to be dominant, however a lack of structure in the backline proved to be undoing much of the promising Chester attack. As Paul Callahan burst through on the wing, he had the opportunity to pass out wide to winger, Mark Treglown, however, backing himself, broke through two tackles but came just short of reaching the whitewash. Five minutes later, Callahan, again with the opportunity to pass out wide to Treglown for what would have been a certain try, backed himself again. This time there was no mistake as he parried the Richmond defence yet again and made it over the line for a superb individual try. Kirton, taking over the kicking duties, converted. However, it was the away team took the final points of the half, making a long range penalty to leave the half time score a precarious 12-10 to the home team. The second half was a scrappier affair as the heavens opened and provided very difficult playing conditions. Chester looked the stronger of the two teams, however the rain proved holding onto the ball to be very difficult which led to a very stop-start game. Coach, Jim Langley epitomised the frustration of the afternoon, in an increasingly animate way. In patches however, the home team showed great teamwork as the interplay between backs and forwards was sublime. Prop turned winger, Michael Hardy showed great confidence to dummy the Richmond winger before passing inside to centre, Ben Brown after drawing in a second, opposition defender. Brown, who had hit an excellent line inside, was able to cut through the heart of the Richmond defence to score under the posts leaving Kirton with an easy conversion and also put the game firmly in Chester-Le-Street’s favour. Chester scored the final try of the game despite their lack of fluency in attack. Sustained pressure from the Chester attack resulted in the home team gaining territory deep in the Richmond half. However, a turnover on the five metre line seemed to have thwarted the home team’s attack as the visitors came away with the ball. Good pressure from Kirton resulted in a chargedown as the ball was fumbled by the Richmond fly-half. Captain, Kirton, was then able to pounce on the ball over the tryline to secure a resourceful, solo-effort try and also the bonus point for Chester in what had been a scrappy, hard fought game. Final score, 24-13. Next up for Chester-Le Street is Sedgefield away from home. All support welcome! Written by Peter Hunter
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 23:26:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015