On a unseasonably warm and sunny day Wilmslow hosted Sandbach U14's for the semi final of the Cheshire Cup. After our last encounter with Wilmslow which saw us loose the Cheshire Cup final last May, there was a lot more than a final place at stake.

Both squads were large with over twenty players in each and the nerves could be felt from both teams during the warm up. The game kicked off with some excellent back play from Wilmslow putting Sandbach under pressure. Sandbach were slow to settle and this resulted in a well worked try in the corner by Wilmslow. In previous years this may have seen some of the boys heads go down but not anymore. If anything it was the kickstart need for our forwards to get in to gear and slowly start to turn the screw on the Wilmslow pack. Scrum after scrum was won by Sandbach which was clearly starting to rattle Wilmslow's composure. Continued pressure saw a well worked ball through the hands move result in a try in the corner but sadly no conversion. Sandbach continued to turn the ratchet until the end of the half with honours even.

The second half started the same way the first ended with Sandbach piling on the pressure up front. This was making Wilmslow force the play at times leading to some uncharacteristic handling errors. Sandbach battled down the pitch to the Wilmslow line where a certain try was lost by Sandbach not using the clear overlap. However further effort lead to another good try by Sandbach in the right hand corner. Frustration by Wilslow lead to their centre seeing a yellow card and a subsequent sin bin for not giving the ball up after having a penalty awarded against him. To be fair to the rest of the Wilmslow team they never gave up but cool resolve by Sandbach saw them see the game out to win their place in their 8th Cheshire Cup final in so many years.

Today the boys grew up and showed true icy cold character in the face of stiff opposition. Onwards to a final vs Lymm at Wirral RUFC...