Houghton RUFC slip and slide to victory

The hosts gained another bonus point performance as they took control of the bad weather conditions by picking up momentum in the backs to speed across the line.

Brett Henderson opened up the scoring for the Dairy Lane men as he was shipped the ball off a maul in the left hand corner. Daniel Bearn’s conversion slopped off with the wind to lead 5-0 in the fifth minute.

Early on the weather proved testing to both sides as they struggled to maintain patterns of play with the ball fumbling to the ground.

The second positive play saw Henderson hand of the visitors as they struggled to make the tackle to see him mark the second unconverted try on the board.

Just minutes later James Ross shot through the defence from a well-timed pass on the gain line. Despite the support play from Tom Birtley, Ross powered under the posts to set Bearn up for the conversion. The hosts lead 17-0 with ease in the 16th minute.

The visitors had their first feed of the ball in the 19th minute gaining possession in Houghton’s half. Moving forward they were given their first shot at points as they set for the posts, but with the help of the wind Houghton remained their only team on the score board.

With ten minutes left of the half the hosts ran wide with Marc Willey scoring in the corner to lead 22-0.

Before the half time whistle the leaders fell to 14 men with Birtley sitting in the bin for ten minutes for being off his feet at the break down.

On the return, Chester attempted to take advantage with a questionable amount of decisions allowing them to exert pressure on the hosts defence in their 22.

Remaining strong the visitors were unable to put points on the board even after Houghton lost Michael Dixon and Aidan Towers to the sin bin within moments of Birtley’s return.

Keeping a positive outlook, Willey, Mark Douglass and Lewis Wilson channelled the attack with speed in the back line to give the hosts in good position.

Ross was once again well supported as he broke the line of play at the half way line. He was through and under the posts for what was the final score by the hosts. Bearn slotted the ball between the posts to round the game off 29-0.

Ryan Pink, Head Coach said at the end of the game: “The lads played worked hard all afternoon and keeping a clean sheet demonstrated this.

“I thought we were a little hard done by having three players sin binned. A lot of decisions went against us which slowed our momentum when we looked set for tries.”

By Clarissa Murphy