The sun was shining on Station Road this Saturday as Holmes Chapel put in the performance of the season against Old Bedians.
The game started at a fast pace as the visitors put the pressure on early with some strong running and good work around the breakdown. The boys in blue adapted quickly and composed a calm defence. Tackles and rucking was very strong with captain Dom Moss, Callum Grant-Smith and man of the match Joe Foulkes having a field day turning over an astonishing amount of ball. The work at training over the last few weeks paid off as a lot of safe offloads kept the game active and it wasn’t long before Holmes Chapel made a home deep in the opposition half. A clearance kick from Bedians fly half saw Jed Wragg collect it from full back and pick a brilliant line to beat 3 defenders and go over the line for the first try of the game. Bedians came with a strong squad and kept the pressure on Holmes Chapel but some great work in the centres from Jim Moss and fireman Kristian Clowes hurt the visitors with the latter picking an inspired line to add his name to the score sheet. The visitors came back and the game started to develop into a stalemate in the centre of the pitch with some strong counter rucking of their own especially the opposition 9 turning over some ball from the Chapel pack. Callum Grant-Smith turned over a ball after a big tackle from Clowes and Chapel mounted a lovely attack with some strong running from Nathan Stewart and Mark McEnaney. The ball kept moving forward with Conor Gavin and Rob Moore both carrying the ball well and the home side happily camped on the opposition 5 meter line. A spilled ball resulted in Joe Foulkes adding another 5 points with a cheeky back row try. Bedians kept up the attack from the kick off but brilliant defence from 1 to 15 kept them off the scoreboard till the end of the first half.

Half time: 19-0 to Chapel.

The second half started much the same as the first with Chapel playing calm expansive rugby and defending with cool composure. Joe Tomasik came on which gave Chapel a better platform from the scrums and soon Chapel were attacking with gusto. Chapel kept the pressure mounting and started forcing the errors; a kick to touch from a penalty resulted in powerhouse prop Will Mitchell scoring a try from the lineout with some very strong running. As the home side started pulling ahead they still managed to keep their heads and continued with a calm and intelligent game of rugby. Some changes in the backline saw Joe Maddock and Angus Morison come on and both make a big impact. Joe Maddock successfully charged down an attempted chip and caught the ball; he then went on to streak the length of the pitch, out running two opposition players to score the try of the season. Bedians started back at Chapel with a good spirited string of attacks but were stopped in their tracks by the home defence, with Dave Steer in particular putting in some big hits. Some nifty passes and footwork saw Jed Wragg with some space and he powered through again to score straight under the posts. As the game came to a close Holmes Chapel were comfortably away from danger in the opposition half as the final whistle blew.

Full time: Holmes Chapel 1st XV 40 – 0 Old Bedians 2nd XV.

A big thanks to Old Bedians who played a good game and forced Chapel to play the way they did. I would like to say that the whole Holmes Chapel squad had a brilliant match and we now know how we can play and we’ll look forward to the future. As the team and squad moves forward the importance of training only grows so let’s all make the effort to get to training to fight for a place in the starting team.