Sandal 30 Lymm 28

In a thoroughly pulsating match Sandal staged a courageous late fightback to win the game with the last play of the game. In the early stages the visitors threatened to break from deep twice but a forward pass followed by poor execution of a pass saw the breaks come to nothing. Sandal were fore-warned of the danger posed but were the first on the scoreboard when winger Simon Frewin broke clear from inside his own half to round the cover and score a superb individual try in the bottom right hand corner. Lymm responded with a penalty from winger Cormac Nolan but the home side scored their second try of the afternoon on twenty minutes when following a deft chip through by winger Cameron Bainbridge; centre Tom Allott was the quickest to seize on the loose ball over the line to open up a ten points to three lead. Lymm fly half Tom Bray then broke from his own twenty-two and two quick passes later play was within fifteen metres of the home line where desperate defence saw a Sandal player yellow carded for preventing quick ruck ball. Nolan added the three points which was then nullified with the same from fly half Greg Wood for Sandal before visiting number eight Ollie Higginson showed his athleticism to cross untouched to the side of the posts. The conversion, crucially, was missed to leave the score at thirteen points to eleven to the home side at the break.
Minutes after the re-start Higginson again showed his class as he strode through before offloading a pass out of the back of his hand to Tom Bray who crossed under the posts with Nolan converting. Sandal responded with a penalty from captain Wood to tie the scores heading into the last quarter. Lymm again showed their attacking prowess as a blindside break saw winger Chris Owens cross wide out to give his side a five point lead. The final five minutes saw the home side go through phase after phase and with time running out it appeared it was game over with a visiting scrum awarded for a Sandal playing running into his own man. The final twist in this entertaining match saw Lymm penalised for feeding at the scrum and following a quickly taken tap penalty the home side drove away at the visiting line with prop Rob Norbury finally diving over to level the scores. Fly half Wood stepped up to nervelessly kick the winning conversion at which point the referee's whistle sounded for no-time and as Sandal celebrated it was hard not to feel large sympathy towards Lymm who had contributed fully to a superb contest.