6 minutes | Monday, 13 March 2023
Chester RUFC welcomed 3rd placed Hull Ionians to Hare Lane on Saturday afternoon. 13 points separated the teams before the start of the game within National League 2 North, so a potential tough home game for Chester.
The game started in favour of the visitors who pulled away by scoring two tries, making the score 0-10. Chester Captain, Scott Robinson scored a try but the dependable boot of Liam Reeve couldn’t convert, so the score remained at 5-10. Chester came back with a second try which was converted by Liam Reeve for Chester to take the lead for the first time at 12-10. Ionians then hit back with their third try of the game to make the half time score 12-13.
Into the second half and Ionians went further ahead with a try and conversion to make the score 12-20. Chester struck back with a try and conversion from Gethan Long to make it 19-20, before a great run from Ben Ivory, found Kyle Joseph and he passed to Tom Holloway to who then crossed the line with a try for Chester to regain the lead at 24-20. Ionians bounced back with a try and conversion to make it 24-27, then stretching the lead further to 24-32 with a try. Chester came back with a try from Luke Cox which was converted by Liam Reeve to pull the score back to 31-32.
Into the last five minutes of the game and the referee awarded Chester a penalty after a bad tackle on Liam Reeve. No red card could be issued due to the officials not finding the offending Ionians player but Liam Reeve got to his feet to covert the penalty for Chester to win the game 34-32 and in the process, send the Chester crowd home happy on what was a very cold winter’s afternoon at Hare Lane.
After the game, Head Coach Guy Ford spoke to Dee Sport’s Steve Lord with his thoughts on the game...