Sandal 6 Scarbrough 6
Sandal retained their unbeaten status but surrendered their 100% record on a wet and windy afternoon at Newby. Sandal opened brightly and dominated proceedings for the first ten minutes going through the phases and retaining possession. The Milnthorpe Green men threatened briefly following a rolling maul from a lineout but were stopped in their tracks when the referee ruled that the play had stopped and then started again and awarded a scrum to the home side. Scarborough came back well and applied pressure on the visiting line and were rewarded when hooker Jones kicked a penalty following backchat from a Sandal player. Sandal responded and from a ruck on the home 22 metre line fly half Tom Smith calmly dropped a difficult goal in the wet conditions to level the scores and it stayed that way to the half time break in spite of forward pressure from the home pack on the visiting line.
The second half saw Sandal dominate the third quarter both territorially and possession-wise but unable to get the breakthrough against a superbly committed home defence who did not miss a tackle all afternoon. Four kicks at goal were missed and on the one occasion when they looked likely to cross the line they were again stopped when the referee ruled that the rolling maul had stopped and started again. Scarborough were not out of the game though and they came back when first New Zealand flanker Tupai broke through followed by fly half Bullen whose kick to the corner only just evaded his supporting players. Sandal were now forced to defend on their own line and the pressure finally resulted in an infringement at a ruck and Scarborough hooker Jones stroked the penalty over to give his side a three point lead with time running out for the league leaders. With minutes remaining Sandal found themselves again on their own line but determined not to give up their unbeaten record without a fight. Replacement hooker Jon Sewell courageously won turnover ball at a lineout and good hands saw winger McCormack make ground and then with Sandal looking for quick re-cycled ball the Scarborough second row killed the ball and conceded a penalty 35 metres out in front of the posts. Sandal fly half Tom Smith stepped up and with the last kick of the match kept his nerve to level the scores, maintain his side’s unbeaten status and deliver what was probably a fair result on the day.
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