Sandal 24 Sheffield 5
This comfortable win saw Sandal go into the Christmas period still unbeaten and proudly sitting top of the league but their performance failed to hit the heights of earlier matches and it is probably a sign of how far they have progressed this season when they win in such a comprehensive fashion in spite of committing too many errors. The Milnthorpe Green men started brightly and opened the scoring on ten minutes when they moved the ball wide to wingman Simon Frewin who drew the cover and cleverly fed supporting centre Danny Mitchell who crossed in the corner to give his side a five point lead. Sheffield immediately fought back and from two penalties they kicked themselves to the Sandal line and then drove no. 8 Cotton over the line for an unconverted try to level the scores. From that point on Sandal took control of the game territorially and were rewarded when fly half Tom Smith kicked two penalties and further when flanker Lee Norris used pace and power to score a superb individual try from thirty metres out to leave his side ahead by sixteen points to five at the break.
The second half followed the pattern of the first with Sheffield's committed defence continuing to thwart the home side's efforts to move the ball and forcing them into handling errors. Sandal, however, increased their lead when Sheffield's attempts to slow the ball down at a ruck resulted in them losing a player to the sin bin and home fly half Tom Smith kicking three points from the resultant penalty. The rest of the game was fairly unremarkable apart from a further try to Sandal when they moved the ball blind from a scrum on half way with full back Chris Reakes breaking through the first line of defence before feeding winger Dan McCormack who ran the ball in from the visitors twenty two metre line to seal the game and see his side enter the New Year unbeaten in their league campaign.
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