A cold Sunday afternoon saw a rebooted Sandal Academy (U17/18 mixture of ages) play Yarnbury in their first friendly fixture for the season against a well organised Yarnbury side.
The game was well supported by the club with senior players and parents from all parts of the club on the touchline, in a game which was well contested by both.
Yarnbury were the more organised of the teams in the first exchanges, and a superb chip and collect from Sam Wood saw Sandal take the lead. A driving run from captain Henry Millican saw Sandal score again to apply the pressure to Yarnbury. Strong runs from James Gibson and Zac Taylor saw Yarnbury having to defend well to repel a strong Sandal.
Yarnbury were no fools and played well as a squad and the following 30 minutes or so resulted in an arm wrestle between the two sides with Yarnbury going into half time with a dominant 17 -10 lead.
The second half brought more pressure from Yarnbury and some well worked play saw them move well ahead with a score line of 29-10 with around 15 minutes to go.
Sandal gathered themselves and used the width of the field to stretch Yarnbury and additional tries from Sam Wood, Lewis Collingwood, James Gibson and Elliott Gelder saw Sandal start to dominate.
A brace a piece from Gibson and Wood saw Sandal be worthy winners.

Tries
Sam Wood x2
Henry Millican
Lewis Collingwood
James Gibson x2
Elliott Gelder

Conversions
Sam Wood x 3

Report – Justin English