A fine sunny day and good pitch conditions given the recent weather greeted Macclesfield, the visitors for this Cheshire Plate match.

Sandbach, playing with real passion and controlled aggression started very strongly and took an early lead with an excellent try from open side flanker Tom Whittaker. Kieran Stubbs converted to give the hosts a 7 - 0 lead.

Macclesfield had started slowly, spilling a lot of ball in the early stages. Sandbach should have done better with the possession the team had but too many opportunities were turned over and execution at the breakdown was poor compared to recent performances.
The Sandbach try seemed to spark Macclesfield into life and the visitors came back strongly and after a good period of pressure scored a well deserved try to leave the half time score 7 - 5 to Sandbach.

At the start of the second half Sandbach failed to gather from the restart and Macclesfield scored early on to take a 7- 12 lead.

Now it was the turn of the Sandbach lads to respond and after a period of sustained pressure they scored a second try through No 8 Ewan Ashman to level the score at 12 - 12.

Once again though Sandbach were guilty of not concentrating from the kick off and Macclesfield scored again to lead 12 - 17.

another try for the visitors five minutes from time gave them a 12 - 22 lead and despite a huge effort Sandbach were unable to breakthrough the Macclesfield defence.

Sandbach will reflect on a game in which we shoud have done better. After a bright and powerful start we allowed Macclesfield to get into the game and ultimately made too many errors, giving possession away at key times and in key areas and not making best use of what we had.

The team never gave up though and showed a real determination and fighting spirit right to the final whistle. Well done lads.

Thanks to Macclesfield for an excellent cup tie played in the true spirit of rugby. Good luck to them in the next round.