CHESTER director of rugby Steve Donovan is still in buoyant mood after seeing his side ease past rivals New Brighton last weekend, writes Ben Coulbeck.

In completing the 28-13 success, the Hare Lane outfit piled the misery on former head coach Steve Dorrington who was making his first return to Chester after leaving in the summer.

A new-look Chester side looked head and shoulders above their Wirral counterparts and Donovan believes his side could have easily put the boot in.

'It was fun!' he said. 'But of course it would be with us winning. We played really well and were outstanding in the second half. We should have put 40 or 50 points on them really.'

Making their full debuts, half-back pairing Gareth Troughton and Simon Francis delighted the coaching staff with their control and link-up play and will retain their places for tomorrow's trip to newly-promoted Penrith.

'Both played well,' said Donovan. 'They bring something different to the game and we had the confidence to bring them straight into the side. We moved ball all game and used the space well.'

Troughton, a summer signing from Manchester, is enjoying life at the club and hopes to hold on to his place - even when fellow scrum-half and captain Russ Meadows returns from injury.

'It went really well,' he said. 'They brought me and Simon and things went right for us on Saturday.

'I haven't seen Russ play yet so I can't really judge but I am just going to try and keep doing what I am doing and hope that the coaches like it.

'Hopefully we can go up to Penrith and put one over on those boys.'

Chester name a unchanged starting line-up for their trip to Cumbria for what promises to be a much tougher assignment than last weekend.

Hooker Nathan Sandland-Jones comes onto the bench.

* Chester's second XV notched up a 15-0 victory at Waterloo. Dave De Winton opened the scoring with a cracking team try and Chester controlled the game under the experienced hand of fly-half Murray King, who added a drop goal and two penalties to his first-half conversion.

Chester's thirds won 35-7 at Old Bedians while the veterans breezed past Caldy 67-7.