Chester RUFC made it back-to-back victories in the National League Two North with a 34-5 victory over Leicester Lions.

Jan van Deventer’s men followed up their resounding 59-7 success over Sheffield Tigers and are only two points below Huddersfield in the table.

Tries from Andy Baston, George Baxter, Andrew Oakden and Johnny Charmley sealed the win over the Lions at Hare Lane, with the conversions kicked by James Robins.

And head coach van Deventer has praised his side’s response since the 45-0 loss on the road to high-flying Sedgley Park earlier in March.

“We could have easily realised we were safe and definitely were going to be in the league again next year and seemed to just stumble across the line.

“But the guys have responded well, had an excellent performance against Sheffield Tigers and again at the weekend against Leicester Lions.

“We controlled the game from the start and, in defence and attack, we were excellent to be fair.”

Chester have been in a rich vein of form since the start of 2018, winning seven of their 10 fixtures so far this year.

And van Deventer puts his side’s form over the past few months down to several factors, including players from the second team stepping up to the plate when called upon.

“I think it’s just a real focus,” he said.

“Very much it’s due to just sticking at it and a lot of guys have had opportunities over the time as well.

“They’ve worked hard for it, played for the second team throughout the year, and they’ve really stepped up and set the bar high for everyone else to follow.

“They made sure they took the leading role from it as well.

“We’ve also probably managed to keep a relatively fully fit squad this side of Christmas with people coming back from injury and long term injuries.

“That has really helped to make sure that the guys there have got some good players around them as well.”

Chester travel to table-topping Sale on Saturday, which van Deventer said will be a ‘very tough’ assignment.