Vale of Lune 2 made it two home wins in as many weeks with a hard fought 22-10 victory over Holmes Chapel1, avenging the 17-13 defeat the hosts suffered back in November when the two met at Station Road. To date this has been Chapels only league victory of the campaign and much of Vale's pre match talk focussed on putting right the mistakes from that outing.
Coach Dan Rainford has been searching for some consistency in selection but was forced into more than half a dozen changes from the squad that overcame Chester 3 the previous week due to injuries and call ups. Adam Newton, and Tom Cvijanovic were drafted into the pack, while Harry Agar, Matt Field, Campbell Murray and Ryan Fawcett were selected in a much changed back line.
In what were near ideal conditions, Vale made the perfect start by scoring a try in the first minute of the game. After dealing with the kick off, Vale attacked Chapel's blind side where quick, effective passing put Murrell into space. The winger still had much work to do but he evaded the full back and had the pace to avoid the cover to dot down for the first five pointer of the game. Fawcett neatly converted from the right hand side.
This early score seemed to jolt the visitors into life and they slowly began to dominate territory and aided by Vale's ill discipline the penalty count began to grow. Vale's defence stood firm and they were rewarded in the the 16th minute as Murrell gratefully accepted a smart offload by fellow winger, Alexov, to crash through Chapel's defence to score, Fawcett's conversion failed narrowly to go over.
Vale were keen to keep the scoreboard ticking over but were again guilty of giving away penalties as referee Richard Beveridge began to lose patience with indiscretions at the break down. Chapel camped in Vale's twenty two with the home side doing well to thwart much that was thrown at them, with the back row of Hodgson, Griffiths and Cvijanovic turning the ball over at crucial times. With half time looming, Vale conceded another penalty in their 22 and a quick tap from the stand off caught Vale off guard, the number ten scooted over in the right hand corner for his try.
With only a minute left in the half to respond Vale pounced on a mix up by the visitors as they tried to deal with the restart which allowed Foxcroft to gather the ball and gallop into the twenty two. The ball was quickly recycled and with Chapel's defensive line unable to re-organise, Petar Alexov had all the space he required to crash over to the left of the posts, Fawcett converted to bring the half to a close.
The beginning of the second half followed the same pattern as the first with Chapel enjoying the majority of possession and territory but unable to to find a way through Vale's defence. Vale's pack could take much of the credit for this, with the front row of Ewan Hutchinson, Matti Davenport and Adam Newton not taking a backward step in the scrums or driving mauls from line outs.
The penalty count against Vale was again a problem for refer ee Beveridge warning Vale's skipper Adam Foxcroft that another indiscretion would lead to a yellow card. Foxcroft showed natural leadership by immediately planting a high shot on Chapel's stand off and ensuring that he would have a ten minute break from the action.
Chapel failed to take advantage of their numerical advantage as Vale began to edge out of their territory on the back of some good kicking from Jamie Antcliffe and Ryan Fawcett. By now Dan Rainford had emptied the bench, bringing on the fresh legs of Tom Needham, Freddie Bartle and Luke Butts, the latter two making their debuts for the Seconds. All three made contributions as Vale edged into Chapel territory, where their back line was caught offside. Fawcett knocked over the resultant penalty goal as the game entered its final ten minutes.
Despite needing 3 scores, Chapel continued to press for a second try and were duly rewarded following a line break from their number eight. The ball was shifted to the stand off who spotted a space in the back field for a cross kick, Matt Field did his best to cover the move but Chapel's full back had too much space to win the race for the ball and an unconverted try.
There was still time for Vale to launch one last effort but Chapel did well to hold firm on their own line and repel Vale's attacks. This victory takes Vale into 7th place in Division 1 and they will be hoping to make it three home wins in a row when they host Firwood Waterloo 2 on Saturday.

Man of the Match: Campbell Murrell.

A big thank you to Alex Batson for his report.