Sandal U17s team had set their armoury up well for a competitive game of rugby away at the Doncaster Knights ground. 17 players showing availability and with three newcomers to the squad having their first competitive outing, there was a positive feel pregame.
With Green and James, raring to go early on, Sandal had brought their big hitters to the party. The hosts matched Sandal in size, so this had been set up to be a very competitive game of rugby.
Both sides were out of the blocks early, the territory game was in favour of the home side, but the scoreline remained tied well into the first half.
Sandal finally managed to get within the oppositions 22 and made the most of their visit. Phase after phase of forward play into the well shielded Doncaster defence, finally James, spotted a blindside gap and crashed securely over the line to open up the scoring - McDonald added the only Sandal conversion of the afternoon.
The hosts then hit back with several phases of their own inside Sandal’s half with notable tackling efforts from Townend, Walton, Tomos and Cooke as pack leader. Eventually the pressure proving too much, and Doncaster managed to cross the line, but failed to convert their first score, Sandal maintaining a 5-7 lead.
Back to business and both teams continued their equally matched efforts, until in open play Atwell managed to make the most of an opportunity, with an unusual defence drop off tackles from Doncaster, Sandal extended their lead 5-12.
Atmore on his debut had now gained a taste for the ball and continued strong running from both him and his centre partner, Bostwick, which led him to crossing the line again, taking the two teams into their half-time camps at 5-17.
Doncaster came out prepared to push back the visiting folly, again with hard hits from both the backs and forwards, pressurising the visitors in the first 20 minutes to gain two tries and one conversion to level the scores 17-17, with a yellow card to Sandal, the advantage had now gone in the host’s favour. They capitalised on their player advantage and took the lead for the first time in the game, scoring under the sticks and converting, Doncaster 24-17 Sandal.
The remaining minutes of the Sandal sin-bin appeared to last for a long time with Doncaster keeping their visiting team pinned back inside their own half. Finally Sandal managed to get back to full strength and began to test their hosts once more, seeing a very well-orchestrated back play working the ball through the hands of McDonald, Bostwick, Atmore and Akindele until they finally reached Long on the wing who scored on his debut in the corner - Doncaster 24-22 Sandal.
With the dying moments of the game both teams knew the stakes involved, with the visitors pushing hard for another score and the hosts tried to see out the clock.
It was a great display of both attack and from both sides, unfortunately Sandal couldn’t manage to make the most of their opportunities and the score remained in favour of the hosts.
Final score: Doncaster 24-22 Sandal.