Cup Defeat in Season Opener

Sandbach returned to competitive action for the 2023/4 season, when they travelled to Paton Field on Saturday for the 1st Round of the newly formatted Cheshire Cup, where the winners of the two conferences will play off in the final at the end of the season. First up Sandbach were drawn against Championship outfit Caldy’s Development XV, but their depth of resource proved too strong for the Bach, resulting in a comfortable win for the home side. The Wirral based outfit having finished 10th in the Championship last season have recruited strongly, with twenty new players arriving over the summer. With their Second XV having been unbeaten since April 2019, a run of 67 consecutive games, it always looked a difficult task for an inexperienced Sandbach outfit. The contrast could not be more marked as Sandbach fielded fifteen players of the squad of twenty, as graduates from their mini junior section, four of them making their 1st XV debuts, including two eighteen-year-olds in full back Henry Mitchell and prop Archie Lea.

Caldy kicked off with the slope in their favour and their forward superiority was quickly evident, as Sandbach were pushed off their own ball at the first scrummage. Caldy’s big lock forward Tom Sanders powered over early on, converted by Rogers and a simple blind side move off the back of a dominant scrum saw winger Jones in at the corner for their second, after quarter of an hour. Sandbach then suffered a further blow as skipper Jimmy Gore had to leave the field, having been hit across the nose by Rogers, which resulted in the fly half receiving a yellow and the returning Ed Vitta playing the rest of the game at inside centre for the Bach. Sandbach were living off scraps but did manage a Jack Williams penalty to reduce the deficit to 12 v 3 after half an hour, but a couple of catch and drive tries for hooker Ted Stagg stretched the lead, resulting in that it was 22 v 3 at the break.

Both teams made a few changes after the interval, but it remained still pretty much one way traffic, with Caldy’s dominant set piece restricting Sandbach to limited possession. When they did have some, they struggled to put too many phases together, as early season rust and unfamiliarity was all too evident. Stagg completed his hat trick as Caldy added a further four tries in the second half, all but one coming through their powerful forwards. Sandbach can take some comfort in that they never gave up, but home-grown talent against a semi professional outfit, was always going to be difficult.

Sandbach will dust themselves down as they prepare for the first league game next Saturday, when they make the short trip to newly promoted Leek. They will be hoping that a few more familiar faces will be available, and they will be able to get their traditional flowing game going somewhat better than this weekend, but it will not be easy. The Staffordshire outfit have also been recruiting and with the confidence of two promotions on the run will fancy their chances, so the Bach will need to heed the lessons from the game as another challenging league campaign begins.