They narrowly failed in the last two seasons, but have strengthened their squad, brought in a new coach in Nic Corrigan, and appear to be running things on a semi-professional basis including travelling up and overnighting on a Friday.

That tactic failed to earn them a win at Percy Park earlier in the season. However, that is their only defeat so far and they include the likes of Tom Foden and Lloyd Hayes in a talented side.

This encounter will be the first between the two sides at Brinkburn since the death of Reg Turner following our win at home back in February. Chester's coaches and players were magnificent that day in trying to help Reg when he collapsed beside their team coach. The Turner family will be marking the sad anniversary by nominating the respective Men of the Match.

The two clubs have met very recently, but sadly it was at disciplinary hearings in Leeds following two citings by Chester in the fist meeting of the sides in September.

Photographic evidence was produced which showed Andrew Cheslin's hand in the face of a Chester player as he went for a tackle, while video evidence showed that Andrew Rollins was the only person who was wearing a West shirt anywhere near the same Chester player when he received an eye injury in a maul.

There is no doubt that the player was hurt in the maul incident, although he did not know by whom, and the original RFU panel and the subsequent appeal panel were made of eminent, experienced and fair people. There is also no doubt that any contact with the eye area is unwanted, but for the sake of the game the rigid interpretations coming down from Twickenham need to be relaxed.

In every game of rugby there are numerous instances when hands and head are in proximity. Andrew Dixon received scratches to his eyes a couple of weeks ago in a maul, and last week Scott Butcher was virtually punched in the face as he sped up the wing by a player who had previously been sinbinned for a high tackle on Peter Youll.

The players just got on with it and rightly accepted the referee as the authority on the subject. What is happening now is that the plethora of men with big lenses and people with video cameras [like me] can provide images after a game which can lead to citings and long bans for players. The entry point for making contact with the eyes is 18 weeks.

In Cheslin's case the still photo showed his hand up against the face of the player who was grimacing. The video showed that the player was not injured in any way, and he continued with the game and did not even put his hand to his eyes.

In banning Ches for 9 weeks the Chairman of the panel told him he was extremely unlucky because of the precise instant the photo was taken.

Rollins was banned for 13 weeks and subsequently lost his appeal because the first panel was of the opinion that he could reach the player on the other side of the maul. After a very close examination of the footage, the appeal panel could not find that the original panel had not reached a verdict which would not have been made by a reasonable person.

That is, of course, a matter of opinion and this is the footage which was closely viewed earlier this week in Leeds. http://youtu.be/4m6n4WWzL5A

My entirely personal opinion, having driven Rollins up and down the A1 twice for these hearings, is that he does not have a left arm which is over six feet long.

He can now not play again until February 28th and you could not blame him if this experience led to him concentrating solely on his rugby league.

This is not to criticise either the RFU panels or Chester who were merely operating under the framework provided by Twickenham. The Cheshire club were playing their first home game under a new coach and with ambitions of being promoted. Their player undoubtedly received an eye injury and photographic evidence taken after the game was certainly consistent with “gouging.” As a result they felt they had to cite the only West player they could see on the video.

However, this whole episode has provided a salutory lesson. If you were to pore over every still frame taken by the sports hobbyists at each game then analyse every second of video footage you could probably get half a dozen decent citings from every game. Then pretty soon you would have to make rugby union a non contact sport.

Fortunately, we are not there yet and we can look forward to a game this weekend where the best team wins, the lads shake hands afterwards, enjoy a pint and nobody rushes off to download his images or the edit suite to carry on affairs for months ahead.

In the absence of Rollins, Andrew Dixon will be at hooker with Ross Wood coming in on the bench. Andrew Foreman returns in the backs and will be at outside centre alongside Greg Edwards.

Young Sam Miller makes his home debut on the bench after an excellent baptism at Lymm last week.

West: Colin Cheslin, Scott Butcher, Andrew Foreman, Greg Edwards, Peter Youll, Stu Waites, Ryan Painter, Anth Carr, Andrew Dixon, Adam Coates, Andrew Davies, Michael Hogan, Dan Boatman [capt], Nathan Myers, Jon Boatman. Reps: Ross Wood, Sam Miller, Tom Armstrong.

Chester: Pat Coy, Lloyd Hayes, Tom Foden, Huw Grundy, Tom Evans, Rhys Hayes, Will Goodwin, John Shirley, Andy Moore (C), James Whitelock-Wainwright, Tom Gregory, Llion Jones, Aled Zachary, Mike Craven, Will Bown. Reps: Gareth Smith, Paul Sherlock, Sean Green