Sandal 29 Malton & Norton 3
Unbeaten Sandal were made to work very hard for this victory by Yorkshire 1 rivals Malton & Norton who dug in, fought for every ball and defended superbly particularly in the second period when the home side might have expected to emulate their average of scoring forty points per game as they have done so far this season.
An error from the kick off saw Sandal under pressure enabling Malton to establish an attacking position in the home side’s 22 metre area and only excellent defending from Sandal prevented their line being breached but the pressure told and Malton were awarded a penalty which was converted by fly half Williams to give his side an early three point lead.
From the restart Sandal went on the attack and after good support play by the forwards No 8 Richard Wade scored under the posts following an interchange of passes with man of the match and hooker Sam Tee to give Chris Reakes an easy conversion.
Sandal quickly extended their lead when the back line spun the ball wide to winger Simon Frewin who turned his man first inside and then outside to make the corner for a superb wingers try. The conversion was missed but Sandal were now 12 – 3 in the lead.
Malton responded with a deep kick off to try put pressure on the Sandal defence but were unable to prevent Sandal attacking again. Despite good defensive work by Malton they were unable to prevent a second try for Richard Wade, his fifth in two games. An attacking scrum was awarded to Sandal, the ball was secured and from the resulting pick up Wade crashed over the line from ten metres out. The conversion was once again missed but Sandal now led 17 – 3 at the half time whistle.
Despite playing with the slope in the second half, Sandal too often turned over ball when in possession and did not extend their lead as the crowd appeared to expect. To their credit, Malton defended as well as any team that Sandal have played this season, maintaining their tight game plan and disrupting Sandal at every opportunity. Despite this, Sandal eventually created an excellent opening from a midfield scrum on their North Yorkshire visitors twenty two metre line with the ball going through four pairs of hands before winger Andy Hall scored on the right.
The final score came after excellent work from the forwards who took the ball at a line out 15 metres out, drove the ball forward and when returning scrum half Max Whittingham broke blind he fed the supporting prop Jon Dix who dived over in the corner with fly half Tom Smith converting well from the touchline to make the score 29 –3 at the final whistle with Sandal remaining top of Yorkshire 1 and looking forward to taking their 100% record to second placed Selby who they visit next.
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