Sandbach travel to league leaders Sheffield on Saturday, following a week off and will be glad to see a few more of the familiar faces available for the trip to Abbeydale. Sandbach’s next batch of games sees them playing teams in or around them in the league, so a good run of results, will be critical to them getting back up with the pace setters. Despite a number returning from the treatment table, Sandbach look likely to be missing top try scorer James Preston, who is still recovering from the blow to his kidneys received in the Scunthorpe game. However, the recent games when the depth of the squad has been tested, shows there is some talented players coming through and Saturday will give them another opportunity to prove this.

Sheffield are enjoying a good season, losing just the one game so far, when they lost 29 v 15 away at Burton, early in the season. Since then, they have been on a six-game unbeaten run, so will be high in confidence. The steel city team have suffered a bit of a blow recently, with Head Coach Adam Byron leaving his role to join neighbouring South Yorkshire outfit Rotherham. However, Sheffield do already have some experienced player coaches to call on, in the influential veterans Dom Parsons and Steve Depledge, so Sandbach will not be expecting things to change too much.

Games between the two side are traditionally close and the Abbeydale surface has been known to be heavy at times. The weather forecast is nevertheless reasonable for the weekend and with it being a mild November so far, there should be a chance of some good open rugby to watch.