Otley thoroughly deserved their bonus point win with a dominant second half performance in which their pack and the boot of Eddie Crossland enabled them to dominate possession territory and score 32 unanswered points.

It didn’t start that way. Early on Chester showed continuity and fluency to allow fullback Sam Earl-Jones to step a defender and score the first try. Otley scored a Ryan Gibson try from a driven lineout on 16 minutes, but the second quarter belonged to Chester. Slick handling created gaps and putting flankers Harry Roberts and Harry Graham in for tries. With an additional penalty and 3 conversions by flyhalf Morgan Bradshaw, Chester went into half-time with a seemingly comfortable 16-point lead.

Otley used the break well. They came out with much greater clarity of purpose. Their pack carried hard and Crossland’s raking kicks often found grass and forced Chester into errors. Pinned down in their own 22 Chester conceded a penalty try on 44 minutes and ten a second rolling maul try for Gibson. They moved to within a point from an Irvine penalty on the hour, then exerted a stranglehold on play in the final quarter with tries from Rhys Green and Josh Sarsfield.

Star player – Eddie Crossland (Otley)
2. Scores and Scorers

Final Score: 24-40

Half time Score: 24-8

Scorers:

Chester –

Tries Earl-Jones (12 mins.), Roberts (20 mins.), Graham (39 mins.)

Conversions Bagshaw (13 mins., 21 mins., 40 mins.)

Penalties Bagshaw (28 mins.)

Drop goals

Otley

Tries Gibson (16 mins., 56 mins.), Penalty try (44 mins.), Green (69 mins.), Sarsfield (19 mins.)

Conversions Crossland (70 mins., 80 mins.)

Penalties Rowntree (9 mins.), Irvine (61 mins.), Crossland (77 mins.)

Drop goals –