ALTRINCHAM Kersal Ladies won 25-10 against Chester Devas to bounce back from a disappointing result in their season opener against Crewe and Nantwich two weeks earlier.

New signings Megan Sanders and Annie Tivey linked up immediately at nine and 10 and broke down Chester’s defensive line for a breakaway try for Tivey in the corner.

From the restart Kersal stepped up a gear and, following three solid forwards' phases, captain Eeron Cunningham crossed for the second try of the game with an assisting drive from tighthead Sarah Daly.

Then, a momentary drop in concentration and discipline saw the visitors capitalise, scoring two tries just before half time to level the scores at 10-10. 

Kersal quickly took possession in the second period when openside flanker Rachel Bennett stole the ball from Chester and further points were added to the board when full-back Becky Bravender exploited space on the wing and outpaced her opposite number to score in the corner, followed shortly by a second breakaway try from fly-half Tivey.

Kersal again marched the visitors back into their half to allow Daly to smash through a hole in Chester’s defensive line, securing the game for the home team.

The men's first XV hosted Stockport and drew 22-22, becoming the first team to take points off the visitors this season, with a hat-trick of tries from Kashley Watkins and conversions from Dave Coleman.

With the score 15-5 to Kersal at half time, the pressure was on not to let it all slip.

But with a surge of pressure in the last 10 minutes as the hosts were reduced to 14 men, Stockport came back to level the score.

Another impressive performance by the seconds saw them overpower Capenhurst firsts 24-5, with tries from Ali Berryman, Dale McLean, Jack Snoddy and Jordan Roberts with two conversions.

Elsewhere, the thirds went down 48-14 at home to Burnage and the Under-17s Colts lost 50-12 to Chester. 

The u14s won 31-17 at Wilmslow, while the u13s lost 40-10 at home, also against Wilmslow.