SANDAL 20 – DURHAM CITY 3
Sandal continued their winning ways against a struggling Durham City side but it was a far from convincing performance from the Milnthorpe Green men. Playing down the famous Sandal slope in the first half the home side found themselves going behind to a penalty for offside which was kicked by Durham winger Metcalfe.
Sandal struck back with a penalty kicked by fly half Greg Wood. The home side always looked in control of the game but too many silly errors meant that they didn’t put points on the board when they should have done. A second penalty was kicked by Wood to make the score at half time 6 –3 to the home side.
The first try came on 50 minutes when a thrilling passage of play saw centre Matt Hemingway score under the posts for his first try of the season. The conversion from Wood made the score 13 –3.
A very determined Durham side showed great commitment throughout the game continued and whilst the tactics they adopted were not particularly pretty to watch, this allowed the visitors to stay in touch. Although they had not won this season it was clear to see why they had not suffered heavy defeats either.
Sandal took the opportunity to introduce young No8 Josh Ferguson for his first team debut following some excellent performances in the Cougars. Sandal continued to press and hooker Sam Tee suddenly found himself running at his opposite number who was knocked aside as was the Durham full back allowing Tee to score to the right of the posts. The successful conversion from Wood made the score 20 –3. At this stage the game was safe and a second debutant was introduced with winger Dave Martin joining the fray.
Whilst the score line was not as convincing as it should have been, the fact that the home side was able to adapt to the loss of James Riley (elbow injury), Danny Mitchell (hernia) and Andy Hall (unavailable due to work commitments) on late Thursday night shows the strength of the current squad. However, a tougher test will come this weekend with the visit of high-flying Driffield.
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