Sandbach travel to Varley Park, Stockport on Saturday where they’ll face Burnage in the final league game of the season. ‘Bach are guaranteed a third-place finish regardless of the result. However, if Firwood Waterloo and league leaders Bowdon were to slip up, although highly unlikely, and Sandbach win with a bonus point, they would top the table and earn promotion.

Sandbach’s young squad, mixed with some seasoned players, have had an outstanding season and finishing third with potentially 90 points, is a huge achievement. They’ve pushed their closest league rivals to the final game, which bodes well for the future, so whatever happens on Saturday, this season has been a success.

The last time these two sides met was on the opening day of the season when Burnage defeated Sandbach 19-41. That was their only home loss and was a wakeup call for ‘Bach. Following that loss, they went on a four-game winning run and set a marker of how they wanted to play.

Consistency in the match day squad has been key to a successful season. Winger and full-back Matt Randle, fly-half Henry Mitchell and centre George Cole have played every game this season and will likely be named in the starting XV once more.

Randle was recently called up to represent Cheshire U20s in their 37-27 loss against Northumberland. The match took place at Anselmians RUFC in the Wirral. His form for Sandbach, where he’s kicked over 130 points from the tee and scored 9 tries, fully justifies the county call.

Winger Elliot Morris recently broke Sandbach’s club record for the most tries scored in a season. Morris is currently on 35 tries, which includes seven hat-tricks, and there’s no sign of him slowing down. The winger has been on blistering form all season and you expect him to further add to that record haul.

Morris’ try against Firwood Waterloo was featured on ITV4’s Premiership Unleashed show last week. The ‘Grassroots Beauts’ segment showed one of the tries of the season, where Morris had kicked a 50:22 kick, chased it and with barely any defence in sight he had the foresight to take a quick lineout. The return pass gave him an easy run in for one of the most intelligent scores you’ll see.

Sandbach have won their last two games, which included a 64-7 win away to local rivals Winnington Park and a resounding 59-14 victory over Altrincham Kersal for their final home league game of the campaign.

Burnage will end the season in a respectable fifth place. They like Sandbach will be aiming for a final home win but both teams will be using this fixture as a gage for when they face-off a week later in the Papa John's Community Cup. That fixture will take place at Bradwall Road and is a straight knockout, which will certainly add excitement to the occasion. The winner of this game will then play Widnes on Saturday 26th April.

Ahead of Saturday’s clash, director of rugby Andrew Bird shared his thoughts: “Our aim for Saturday is to finish with momentum and as high as possible in the league. We may actually finish with the most points scored and the least points conceded, which will be a real achievement.

Most of these teams we’ve played, we will play again next season, so it’s good to take the performances from the back end of the season into next year.

Looking ahead, we’re excited to see how the cup evolves and reward players who have shown great progress.”

Whatever the result on Saturday, expect more great things from this team. Winning on Saturday will end the league season on a high, but this is only the beginning for this exciting team.

Match preview by Rhys Fullerton