Sandal 15 Ilkley 7
Sandal took a giant step towards securing the Yorkshire 1 league title after defeating their closest rivals in a highly physical and competitive game. It was the visitors who started the strongest and pressured the home defence for the opening ten minutes with full back Vincent a constant threat. With both sides playing an open game the Milnthorpe Green men threatened to score when winger Simon Frewin rounded his opposite number with ease to break clear from his own half but full back Vincent brought off a superb try saving tackle to halt the attack. Sandal were not to be denied and opened the scoring when the dominant Sandal pack drove the opposing eight backwards with hooker Sam Tee driving his way over from close range to give his side a five point lead. Further pressure saw the home side create further scoring chances but these were spurned as the half time whistle blew.
Sandal immediately went on the attack at the opening of the second half and generally dominated both territory and possession for most of the final forty minutes. The home side eventually broke through when quality interpassing between winger Simon Frewin and flanker Jack Smith resulted in the supporting centre Danny Mitchell diving over in the corner with full back Chris Reakes converting superbly from the touchline to increase the lead to twelve points. With Ilkley now forced to chase the game in the final quarter they occasionally looked dangerous but Sandal held firm and were rewarded for their pressure when impressive young full back Chris Reakes kicked a penalty with ten minutes to go. Ilkley did not give up and were rewarded when no. 8 Kemble crossed on seventy six minutes with with fly half Shanks converting. Sandal did not panic and comfortably played out the rest of the game without any real undue worry to go clear by three points with six matches of the season remaining in Yorkshire One.
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