Sandal 63 Bradford Salem 17
Sandal continued their unbeaten start to the season with an eleven try win of last season's Senior Vase finalists Bradford Salem. The Milnthorpe Green men opened their account in the first five minutes when a failed kick to touch by the Salem fly half saw the home side run the ball straight back and winger Simon Frewin rounded both his opposite winger and the full back to cross in the corner. The winger repeated this almost immediately when he was released in his own twenty two and after rounding his opposite number again he left defenders in his wake as he scorched eighty metres to the line for a superb solo try. Salem responded and after applying pressure in the Sandal half they were rewarded when fly half Booth kicked a penalty to cut the lead to within one score. Sandal continued to move their opponents around keeping the ball in hand and second row Rob Overton cut a superb angle to power over from twenty metres. Salem came back with a try from close range through prop Davies with Booth converting but further Sandal tries then came from winger Dave Ell who scored a brace in quick succession, no. 8 Richard Wade who was driven over from a lineout and finally winger Dave Ell who again outpaced the cover from half way to register another hat trick following a blind side break by scrum half Max Whittingham to leave the score 35 points to ten to Sandal at the break having already scored seven tries but not converted any of them.
The second half saw the league leaders continue to operate at pace and winger Simon Frewin also completed his hat trick when he turned the defence inside out to dive over in the corner followed by centre Danny Mitchell after a quickly taken tap penalty with Max Whitingham converting both tries to push his side into a 49 points to 10 lead with a quarter of the game still to play. A superb break from his own ten metre line by scrum half Max Whittingham saw him stopped metres short from the Salem line but continued pressure saw second row Rob Overton power his way over for his second score with Whittingham again converting. Sandal then rang the changes and replacement second row Matt Finch made an immediate impact when he took a flat pass on half way, dummied the full back and outpaced the cover to touch down under the posts for a quality individual try with Whittingham converting. Salem, however, continued to battle and scored with the final play of the match when no. 8 Bradbury forced his way over with fly half Booth converting to leave the score 63 points to 17 to the Milnthorpe Green men who had thoroughly entertained the good size crowd and maintained their top spot in the league.
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