By Paul Brown - Sandal visited Old Brods on a fantastic early autumn day. Sandal kicked off downhill and won early ball. Sandal won a penalty and Will Joyce 'Joycey' made a good run to set Lewis Brown up. He offloaded from the floor for Billy Addy to score from 2 yards. Cameron Allen 'Cam' converted to give an early lead 0-7.

From re-start Billy and George Newton-Beck combined well to set up Cam. He drew his man and Will Brooke in to score. Cam converted a difficult chance to make it 0-14. Sandal were on the front foot. Joe Ashley 'Ashers' was getting the ball out quickly allowing rapid forward thrusts.

A line-out deep in Old Brods territory was picked up by Ibrahim Shamchieyev 'Ibs', who drove in to score from 3 yards. This took the score to 0-19. Sandals overconfidence in the next phases led to an error which gave Old Brods rapid centre a clear 50 yard run to score. 5-19.

Pat Maher was next to score, he bundled the ball over the line after a strong run from 'Joycey'. The next kick off landed straight in lewis’ arms. He got his legs moving and pounded down the left to score under the posts. Cam converted to bring the score to 5-31.

Conal Donnelly, at the next contact, put in a ferocious tackle winning the ball back inside Old Brods 22. A loose pass was picked up well by Joycey who slid Will Brooke in to score his second. Cam again converted to bring the score to 5-38.

Sandal were dominating possession and territory. A 5 yard scrum saw Ashers desperately dive for the line. He was short but Ibs cleared up to score. 5-43.

Sandals last try before half time was made by great hands from Pat. He danced through two defenders and put Cam in to score from 20 yards. By half time Sandal had scored 8 trys only conceding a breakaway effort. 5-48

The second half saw sandal kicking off uphill. Old Brods started off with renewed vigour. Sandal made it to old Brods try line, but stern defence saw Old Brods come away with the ball. Missed tackles allowed Old Brods rapid back to break and run 80 yards to score. Sandal attempted to regain control of the game and were playing their rugby deep in Old Brods 22. A loose ball won back by Luke Smith saw it moved out to the wing. George NB ran it in to score in the corner. A missed conversion made the score 10-53.

George Gumpert was now breaking into the line and was unlucky not to score himself or feed the supporting runners. Sandal were getting ‘white line fever’. Greater awareness would have led to more trys by using the width of the pitch. Play at times was rather one dimensional. Eventually, after pounding away at the try line, George Jones cleared up to score. This was the end of sandals tally for the day.

Old Brods finished the game strongly scoring 3 further trys. Two were again breakaways and the other was a clever line out move using the front man to dive in the corner. The final score 29-58.

This was a beautiful day for running rugby. Sandal showed at times their attacking ability, but also their defensive weakness. Four breakaway trys are a warning for future games against tougher opposition. Otley will be an even contest next week. A final note. It was great to see Pat being awarded opposition man of the match today for all his hard work and those ‘twinkling feet’!