Sandal RUFC’s visit to league leaders Scunthorpe in Regional 1 North East was never going to be easy in having to overcome a side as yet undefeated. Whilst Sandal suffered a 39-31 defeat they were always in the game in producing a very creditable performance against strong opposition and came away with a try bonus point.
The game started slowly with an exchange of penalties and field positions with the visitors competing well to the point of setting up an attacking move in the Scunthorpe 22 in the 13th minute which ended with a Jack Handley try in the corner, but whilst the conversion was missed Sandal had taken a 5-nil lead. During the following ten minutes Scunthorpe mounted several determined attacking sorties into Sandal’s territory, which were gamely defended but in the 24th minute the home side forced their way over to register an unconverted try to level the score at 5-5. Sandal continued to compete such that five minutes later from a scrum on the half way Jake Adams made a telling break to take play across field, where Ollie Macnab on his debut, being a replacement for the injured Edan Kelly, scored and with the conversion missing its target Sandal had increased their lead to 10-5 after 29 minutes. Sandal had an opportunity to add to their score with a penalty conversion which went a drift but it was Scunthorpe who scored next five minutes later with a well-constructed move to cross in the corner. The conversion was missed but the score was level again at 10-10 as half time approached. Sandal had to be pleased with this score had it remained until the interval but it wasn’t to be since in the 40th minute the home side mounted a final attacking move to register a third try which was converted to take the score to 17-10 at the break.
The second half started well for Sandal when after only two minutes they produced an attacking move along the back line, from a scrum in Scunthorpe’s 22, which ended in Jake Adams touching down and with Tom Hodson adding the extras from wide out the score was level at 17-17. It was at this point that Sandal eased the pressure allowing Scunthorpe to score two converted tries after 47 and 53 minutes which took their lead to 31-17, as a direct result of the visitors conceding several penalties and resultant ground. Scunthorpe continued to put pressure on Sandal and again with the help of penalties they scored a sixth try in the 62nd minute with the score moving to 36-17. However, Sandal were not down and out since three minutes later they took up a position on Scunthorpe’s 5 metre line and after several pick and go exchanges the ball was given space to enable Luke Adams to score his side’s bonus point try and with Tom Hodson adding a conversion the score moved to 39-24 after 67 minutes. Scunthorpe immediately added a penalty to their score but with 13 minutes on the clock Sandal were still seriously striving to add a losing bonus point to their tally. Whilst this was not achieved a fifth try was secured in the 80th minute when Luke Adams burst through Scunthorpe’s sloppy defence to score his second try and with Tom Hodson kicking his third conversion the exciting and entertaining game came to an end with Scunthorpe posting a 39-31 victory, their seventh of the season. Whilst Sandal were defeated there was no shame in the result because one has to respect the fact that the host side was a strong outfit as their undefeated results indicate. The Sandal players should be complimented for their efforts in putting together a fine entertaining performance which if repeated in future will produce victories against most sides in the league.

Written by Howard Newton