But the sending off of hooker Scott Wright turned the game on its head, the 14-man Saxons were forced into a rearguard defensive effort and leaked 2 tries that put the re-energised hosts back within 5 points before a late Jamie Hearn penalty pushed the game beyond their reach.

The Saxons lineup showed just the one tactical switch from the Sedgley Park game, with Adam Sturdy starting at loosehead and Mike Hill on the bench. The well set Hare Lane venue offered a rather heavy albeit well grassed playing surface while a welcome window in the prevailing weather providing dry, mild conditions with just the lightest of breezes. The hosts kicked off defending the western end of the ground.

Chester mounted the opening attacks but were contained by the well-organised Saxons defence. They elected to kick at goal when a Saxons’ lineout misdemeanour was penalised, outside half Rhys Hayes pushing his first attempt wide but making no such mistake when a Saxons defender strayed offside shortly after the subsequent drop out.

The Saxons worked their way downfield and started to probe the hosts’ defences, their efforts rewarded through a Jamie Hearn penalty kick awarded when a defender was caught offside in his own 22. Fullback Tom Jarvis ran the restart kick back at Chester’s wide defences, the ball was recycled back through the forwards to the far side where Matt Farrington took it at pace and broke a tackle. Though caught by the cover he managed to get a pass away off the ground to captain Robbie Hurrell who was running in support and found himself without a defender to challenge him as he ran in behind the posts.

Hearn converted and added a further penalty shortly after when a Chester defender failed to release in the tackle. The remainder of the half went scoreless, Chester opting to commit defenders to the tackle area and managing to turn over possession as Saxons’ ball carriers got isolated. The visitors started to turn the screw in the scrum though, electing to kick at goal from a penalty awarded on the stroke of half time, but Hearn’s strike flew wide.

From the restart Jarvis hoisted a kick into the hosts’ 22 that their back 3 looked to run back in hand, but a wayward pass went to floor and was snapped up by the alert Stefan Shillingford who had no hesitation in accepting such a gift. With Hearn converting the Saxons’ thoughts may have briefly flirted with securing the 4-try bonus point, but they were brought rapidly back to earth barely a couple of minutes later when an assistant referee’s intervention resulted in referee Gareth Holsgrove showing a red card to hooker Scott Wright for an incident off-the-ball. Flanker Eji Uzoigwe was the man to be sacrificed at the next stoppage as replacement hooker Jordan Page took the field.

Chester took heart from their numerical advantage and started to press attacks deep into the Saxons’ half. Outstanding Saxons defensive discipline held them out for 10 minutes, but eventually a midfield tackle was missed and centre Tom Foden crossed for a converted try.

Another touch judge intervention saw outside half Gary Dipple penalised for a dangerous tackle, Chester declining an easy 3 points and kicking to the corner from where they drove a maul over the tryline for flanker Mike Craven to score out wide. On came Ben Hughes, Pete White and Mike Hill to shore up the defences with the thick end of 20 minutes left to play and the Saxons’ lead down to just 5 points.

A welcome penalty award gave Hearn a long-range attempt at goal and allowed the Saxons to regroup. Though it missed they were then able to force Chester back into their own half through some pinpoint kicking from White. Despite their man advantage the hosts were unable to break out and eventually conceded another penalty for offside that Hearn slotted to make it a two-score lead.

The Saxons impressive defences maintained their stranglehold for the remaining few minutes, their scrum forcing another penalty as Chester pulled the 7-man drive round illegally. With time up Hearn’s long range effort fell short and was run back by the hosts in a desperate last-ditch bid to secure a bonus point, but the attack was finally contained just short of the Saxons’ tryline and the final whistle sounded to the relief of the Saxons’ many travelling supporters.

Director of Rugby Neil Mitchell commented : ‘Chester are a good side, they started well and appeared very cohesive until we put them under pressure. But we weren’t clinical enough in attack in the first half, we failed to press attacks by not protecting the ball well enough and got turned over at the breakdown. Then in the second half we lost shape and were under pressure for a long period after Scott went off so I was very pleased with the resolution and desire we showed to climb back into the game, the impact of the subs was key and the 7 guys in the scrum did a great job. My man of the match was Sione Tu’ipolotu’.