Sandal Cougars 17 Selby 8
Sandal Cougars made the trip to Selby in a confident mood after two good wins, however the painful memory of last years defeat was still with a lot the players and a few wrongs had to corrected.
The Cougars started strongly and were 5-0 up within the first 2 minutes thanks to, initially great footwork from Alex Seckham and then good speed to sprint from the Selby 10m line and a dive to beat the covering defender.
The game ebbed and flowed and Selby got a penalty, which they converted to bring the score to 5-3. The Cougars were starting to get their attacking patterns into gear, which was pretty surprising, considering they had 3 first choice backs out and Captain Brennan, who is a hooker by trade was doing his best to pass as a scrum half for the afternoon. The forwards were starting dominate the scrums and were securing possession for the backs. After a few phases had been put together the backs created an overlap and Scott Seckham joined his brother on the score sheet to make the score 10-3.
The second half started excellently for The Cougars. Hodson was kicking out of hand beautifully and from one of these kicks, the Selby fullback was turned and he kicked loosely to Scott Seckham at fullback. Seckham went on a terrific run and demonstrated superb power, speed and slight of hand, Edge got on the end of this run and scored out wide and converted himself, 17-5.
At this point Selby went on the offensive and were camped in The Cougars half for around 30 minutes. Excellent defence from Purcell and the Seckhams in particular kept Selby at bay. Hodson was doing his very best to clear the Sandal line from difficult ball. Eventually Selby found an overlap and score in the corner, but The Cougars kept them at bay to record an impressive win and their first double over a team this season. Next week The Cougars welcome undefeated league leaders Old Brods in what should be a very entertaining league game.
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