On a beautiful day for rugby at Bradwall Road, Sandbach U14's hosted Stoke on the lush 2nd team pitch in front of a sizeable support for both teams.

Pre match warm up saw the players with a steely eyed determination to face a "much improved" Stoke outfit. Sandbach were without numerous first team stalwarts - George & Will who are carrying injuries, Elliot, Matt & Tom Y, all who were at county trials. However this allowed others to come in and fight for their positions.

After losing the toss, Sandbach ended up kicking in to the sun and against the wind. It became apparent early that Stoke were powerful in the counter ruck and threw masses of bodies in to try and steel the ball. This was a strong tactic but Sandbach soon worked out how to deal with this being rewarded with a try.

Sandbach continued to work hard using the ball through the hands and taking any opportunities afforded to them. Try's continued to come for Sandbach with Stoke scoring a good late consolation try after poor tackling from Sandbach. An area for us to improve on.

In summary, a pleasing performance and comfortable victory on what was a physical encounter, with many positives but still areas to work on.

Well done Sandbach and we look forward to hosting Stoke again in a few weeks time.