Jan keen for more as Chester climbing
Chester ................ 33pts Tynedale .............. 22pts
CHESTER took advantage of their game in hand to move up to second in National League 2 North with an impressive bonuspoint triumph against Tynedale at Hare Lane.
Two first-half tries gave the hosts a 14-3 lead before three further scores saw Chester pick up yet another bonus-point triumph, which pleased Jan van Deventer, though he claims there is more to come.
“We were very good in defence in the first half and we took our chances well throughout to get the maximum five points,” said the head coach.
“There is still a lot to work on and it’s disappointing we made a few mistakes late in the game, but we did enough to get the victory and we can take a lot of confidence from this performance.
“The last 18-20 months at home have been exceptional – we’ve only lost three games here since December 2016, which is incredible.”
It was the visitors who opened the scoring with flyhalf Jake Rodgers firing over an early penalty from in front of the posts.
Tries from flanker Shay Owen and scrum-half Joshua Morris, both converted by inside centre James Robins, put the hosts 14-3 up halfway through the opening 40.
A third try for Chester from winger Sean Green, which was created and converted by star man Robins, gave the in-form home side a healthy 21-3 advantage at the break.
And it took the hosts just four minutes to add their bonus-point score after the interval.
Winger Matthew van Sertima dived over the whitewash before Robins again confidently added the extras for 28-3.
Quickfire tries from Tynedale forwards Ben Wilkinson and David Batey, both converted by Rodgers, reduced the deficit but Chester pulled clear when replacement Richard Craven dived over for a decisive unconverted score with ten minutes to go, at 33-15.
The visitors did score a third try through lock Chris Wearmouth after a missed tackle, again converted by Rodgers, but with just five minutes left on the clock, it was too little too late.
The result left Tynedale’s director of rugby Ben Woods understandably frustrated as his team failed to be clinical when in possession.
“We are frustrated that we couldn’t turn more of our opportunities in the first half into points and because of that, we have too much of a mountain to climb in the second half,” he explained.
“We made too many errors in the game and they punished us every time, so fair play to them for taking their chances – they're a very good side.
“We will try our best this week to put everything right as we have two very important games coming up against Macclesfield and Leicester Lions.
“But we will have to be better than we were here – it’s simple as that.”