Beverley RUFC Vs Chester RFC Match Report

A thrilling game with the result in doubt until the dying minutes.  With two evenly matched sides, lying third and fifth in the table, it was always going to be a tight encounter. On the day Beverley RUFC took their chances better and just about deserved the win.  In the gloomy light and on a heavy pitch this might have been expected to be a forward slog in the mud.  Not a bit of it.

This was a game of cracking rugby in which both sides made light of the heavy conditions and ran the ball freely and at speed.  No quarter was asked or given and aided by the excellent refereeing of Jonathan Owen it was played in a fine spirit throughout.

Chester started strongly and took the lead with a penalty from Rhys Hayes after ten minutes when Beverley RUFC were caught offside in front of their own posts.  Beverley RUFC struck back immediately with just about their first attack.  A lineout and drive down the right by the pack took play into the visitors’ 22 and when the ball was recycled Richard Bussey threaded his way through for a fine try wide out.

As they gradually got more into the game the lighter Beverley RUFC forwards proved more than a match for their beefier opponents.  Gavin Gibson despite an early bang to the head went on to have a superb game in the lineouts, several times winning the ball on the Chester throw and regularly making his presence felt in the loose.

Nor were they out-muscled in the set pieces where they seldom gave an inch.  There was a solidity about the pack and a liveliness in their back row that Chester could not quite match.  Tony Riby-French had a particularly fine game nearly always first to the breakdown and putting in some excellent tackling.

Following a scrum midway inside their half Chester scrum half James Farrell was caught in possession and penalised for not releasing.  Phil Duboulay’s lingering leg injury prevented him kicking leaving Mike Kilgannon to slot the penalty and put Beverley RUFC 8-3 ahead at halftime.  The lead was probably slightly against the run of the first half play but Beverley RUFC always had the more dangerous look about them with some lightning thrusts through the middle, especially by the fleet-footed Bussey in the centre.

If Beverley RUFC had a weakness it was in aimless and poor kicking out of hand in open play.  This was a pity because when they ran the ball they always looked dangerous.  The more Beverley RUFC kicked down the throats of the Chester backs the more dangerous did Chester look as they invariably ran the ball back with fast and sweeping movement.  Hayes at fly half cleverly dictated their play, kicking less often than Beverley RUFC but to better effect, and full back Sean Green was always a danger with the ball in his hands.

When Beverley RUFC went in on the wrong side of a maul Hayes slotted his second penalty to cut the Beverley RUFC lead to two points at 8-6 and it looked odds-on then that one further score could easily settle the match either way.  There was unremitting cut and thrust from both sides but Chester’s attacks were increasingly nipped in the bud by outstanding Beverley RUFC tackling.  A half break by Duboulay brought a second penalty for Kilgannon which left Chester five points adrift and now needing a converted try to recapture the lead.

They always looked capable of getting it but Beverley RUFC cleverly closed the game out in the final stages by keeping the ball tight.

In the dying minutes it was all wrapped when hooker Ally Forth burst away from a maul on halfway with David Worrall in support.  Although the attack was halted Riby-French regained possession and Bussey streaked over in the corner for a clinching try.