Despite dominating for significant phases of the game Sandbach will be disappointed to only come out with a single bonus point, where individual handling errors and once again poor discipline costs them in a hard fought game. Old North’s clinched their first win of the season despite being outscored three tries to one and it was the boot of their young James Grayson, the son of the former England fly half Paul, with his 100% record that kept them always in touch and ultimately won them the game.

Sandbach once more had had to make a few changes with top try scorer Jack Leech and second row man Chris Davenport both unavailable and it also saw the first challenge for new 1st XV skipper Marcus Broad. The home side however started strongly and took the lead after 12 minutes following an initial break by Ali Burton and his pass found fly half Luke Butler who touched down close to the posts for Nick Allsop to convert. But Sandbach were soon making unforced errors and from the resulting penalty Grayson kicked the first of his 17 point haul. Sandbach were though beginning to make a number of line breaks and following a fine counter attack eventually Ali Burton added Bach’s second try.

However that indiscipline raised its head again as Dan Stubbs was yellow carded for failing to use his arms in a tackle, just before half time with, Grayson’s two subsequent kicks making the score 12 v 9 just after the half time break. Once returned to fifteen it was Sandbach who scored again when following a lineout drive the ball was recycled and centre Dan Massey strode through and with Allsop’s conversion the home side led 19 v 9. But soon after Grayson was booting over another penalty and then came the key score with ten minutes to go as Old North’s fullback Seymour scored their crucial try and with the inevitable conversion the scores were level.

Sandbach threw everything at the Old North’s but were unable to break through and after relieving the pressure Sandbach ended up with a scrum on their 22 metre line. Having been given a penalty then in their favour a bit off inappropriate backchat caused the referee to reverse the decision and Old North’s were up for the first time with 3 minutes to go. Sandbach though still had time to mount a last series of attacks and were awarded a penalty of their own when the visitors went offside in a desperate attempt to keep their line intact. Sandbach elected to kick to tie the game but the lack of a reliable kicker was perhaps emphasised, as unfortunately Allsop hooked the relatively easy chance and left the away side elated.

Sandbach have no game this weekend and will be looking to iron out the number of errors in their game at the moment, in the next two weeks of training, as they know when playing to their full capabilities they are able to give any team in this league a game. They will however also have to address the number of penalties that they are conceding and learn that in this league any discretion will be severally punished.