Sandal Saracens took to the field looking to complete their first "double" of the season, having dogged out a win against Phoenix in the cold November rain. Yet another back line reshuffle saw Jonny Mathews filling in at scrum half and Stuart Kay making his first start at outside centre, while James Chappell found himself having to fill in at loose-head prop.

With a number of the forwards seemingly unaware that March meant the return of 3pm kick-offs, an early meet was sneakily arranged so that an extended practice session could take place before the match. This seemed to pay dividends immediately as Sandal dominated proceedings from the start, with strong decisive running backed up by better support play in the loose, and the hosts went ahead with a well-taken try scored by Kay and converted by Mathews. Having started with purpose Saracens continued to put pressure on the visitors, showing a great deal of patience and intelligent play where yesterday's men might instead have tried to force the game.

As the Rotherham side struggled to cope with this confident flowing rugby, Sandal found themselves knocking on Heaven's door with further tries from Sam Chitabura, Andy Taylor and Ben Starkey plus a second try and conversion from Kay and Mathews, and were truly in Paradise City when Alan Swales crossed in the corner to take the lead to 34-0 going into half-time.

During the break Saracens took the opportunity to make changes up front, with most of the substitutes getting an instant welcome to the jungle of the scrum, but playing uphill in the second half a lot of impetus seemed to have been lost, and as Phoenix worked hard to assert themselves it was the visitors that struck first with a converted try. Sandal's only attack of note saw Carl Starling going over for try number seven, but disappointingly the visitors had the last say with their second try, and the half was further marred when Charlie Pearce had to leave the field with what turned out to be a season-ending broken arm.

Overall though this was a satisfying win for the home side - it's so easy when everybody works hard to do the basics well, and ain't it fun when it all comes together?

PS Don't cry at me if nobody volunteers to do the away match reports from now on!

Sandal Saracens: Sam Chitabura, Alan Swales, Stuart Kay, Ben Mitchell, Charlie Pearce (Ben Starkey 75), Dave Chester, Jonny Mathews, James Chappell, Jerome Longmore, Mark Gannon, Carl Starling, Richard Saville (Ryan York 40), Nigel Wilson (Ed Scatchard 40), Andy Taylor (Paul Cook 40), Ben Starkey (Graham Frudd 60)

Tries: Stuart Kay 2, Sam Chitabura, Andy Taylor, Ben Starkey, Alan Swales, Carl Starling

Conversions: Jonny Mathews 2

Sandal Man of the Match: Ben Mitchell