Chester 10 Broadstreet 27
An impressive win on the road for the current leaders of Midlands one. This victory was Chester’s first home defeat of the season and with Hinckley's victory at Peterborough puts a 3 point clear margin at the top of the division.
Coventry side Broadstreet started the game with great pace and ferocity and had the home side under pressure early on. With only 5 minutes on the clock the impressive and ever improving Dan Richards slotted over the first of 5 penalty kicks for a productive afternoon. 0-3.
Leaving Chester to wonder why they gave away so many penalties within range of the posts. Richards adding his second kick on 10 minutes to make the score 0-6.
Morris and Mukarati were outstanding all afternoon getting to the breakdown first creating turnover ball on numerous occasions. They were backed up by Nick Thatcher whose vision for the gap put Chester on the back foot on several times.
Good inter passing and movement by Street created the first try of the game. Scored by second row James Rooke on 13 minutes. The try would have been scored earlier but for some excellent Chester defence. Richards added the conversion to make the score 0-13. Some good work by the Chester back line saw them put some pressure on street in their 22, But the were unable to convert the pressure into points.
A breakout by Mukarati, Thatcher and Crofts took the play upfield and the home side committed another offence just to the left of the posts which Richards added 3 more points on the stroke of half time.
Half Time Chester RFC 0-16 Broadstreet RFC
The second half started in brisk fashion with the play centered around the middle of the field. Chester then gave away their 7th penalty of the afternoon, which Richards gladly accepted. At this point Chester picked up their game and took the game to Broadstreet and were well rewarded with 2 tries in the space of 2 minutes. Simon Verbakis crashed over after 20 minutes, which went unconverted and then, an super try by Liam Lawton after an excellent breakout from the restart.
Unfortunately the kick just missed the outside of the left post. The home crowd now sensing their team were getting back into the match were starting to cheer them on. Broadstreet responded to the pressure they were under by moving the ball excellently along the line for Alex Crofts to score, returning to the first team after a lengthy lay off with injury. Broadstreet finished the afternoon off with a final penalty by Richards prior to the referee blowing the final whistle.