Sandbach travelled to Caldy on a pleasant but not too warm morning. It was pleasing to see that both clubs had a large squad of players which meant there was sufficient numbers to play two seperate games on adjacent pitches so each player got a full hour of playing rugby.
Game 1
Sandbach 7 Caldy 0
Caldy had the greater share of the possession early but stout Sandbach defending kept the scoreboard clear. As time went on Sandbach began to gain greater control and started to gain the upper hand. Just before the end of the first third after strong forward pressure, Ben Gittings went over in the corner for the crucial try which ultimately proved the difference between the teams.
As for the first session the other two showed how evenly matched the two sides were. There were times when Caldy had numbers wide and it could have been argued that the Sandbach defence was a little too deep. However good tackling on the wings or Caldy errors ensured the Sandbach line was not breached.
Overall a good committed performance from the Sandbach side as they start to build towards the tournaments coming up in April. A good lesson for Sandbach, in that the days when you can run through the opposition scoring a hatful of tries are well and truly gone. It is stout defence and taking your chances that win matches as England found out yesterday.
Game 2
Sandbach 47 Caldy 0
This was a tremendous performance by every Sandbach player. Due to numbers of players we had certain players playing out of their normal position. This did not stop us from winning the majority of possession from excellent work by the forwards who won quick ball at every ruck which allowed the backs to run at the Caldy defensive line at every opportunity. Our early tries came from Lawrence using his power to run at the Caldy defence.
During the second period we again never looked like conceding any tries, well organised defending and excellent tackling saw to that. The forwards continued to dominate up front and the backs scored some great running tries.
In the closing moments, we had the play of the game. Cameron playing his first game at fly half kicked a penalty from deep to within 5 metres of Caldy’s try line. From the lineout Lawrence won the ball and our pack drove him over.It was a pleasure to watch every player wanting the ball and playing as a team both in attack and defence.