On a cold, damp and dark morning Sandbach U14's arrived to be told Oswestry don't get up as early as we do!

After discussions with the Oswestry coaches it was decided to keep the boys warm and dry until we had a quick 10 minute warmup then straight into the game.The pitch could be best described as heavy but other words used were Araldite and the Somme. After some last minute changes due to injury only 16, out of the 25, hardy souls travelled. Jamie was awarded his first captaincy. Sadly Oswestry could only field 14 players so JP was duly dispatched to pull on the blue shirt with Connor taking a second half stint. Well done to both for doing a difficult job.

The game plan was drawn up to go straight at the opposition from the kick off. We had seen how important a fast, strong start makes the difference for setting the tone. However, after winning the toss, something got lost in translation with the kickoff going to the right away from our forwards, much to everyone's surprise? Given the poor start the boys then took their time to get into their stride and create some form of cohesion.

The forwards worked hard to first secure the ball and the drive forward as per the plan. Communication was strong between the forwards and the scrum half resulting in good field position that was rewarded by a fine try under the posts with the conversion made. 10 minutes to half time.

Oswestry woke up and came out of the blocks with a renewed energy and drove hard down the pitch and were given a try but no conversion. With two minutes remaining of the half Sandbach wanted to finish the half strong. With great forward driving and strong recycling of the ball saw a gap appear for the captain to score the first of his three try's.

The second half saw Oswestry lose two players and Sandbach capitalised on this by scoring three more try's unanswered.

Overall a very strong team performance with some outstanding individual displays. However, it is clear that certain players need to pay more attention in training and follow the game plan.