South win at home in National 2

South win battle of New Boys

A powerful forward display saw South Leicester to a bonus point win against fellow National 2 North newcomers Sale F.C.

After a slow and kick tennis like start from both teams, it was South who drew first blood through prop Rhod McNaughton, benefiting at the back of a strong catch and drive line out. The ever reliable Rick Aley added the extras.

A penalty from Sale's Liam McGovern narrowed the gap, as South continued to threaten. The Sale defence remained strong, and it took a pin point cross field kick from Aley to pick out the league's top try scorer Cal Gunn who took the high ball expertly in the dead ball area to touch down for a classy try.

Sale hit back with a try of their own from John O'Donnell and 2 penalties from McGovern before Gunn got his 2nd of the game with a nice finish in the corner. A further Aley penalty took South in to a comfortable lead at the break.

It looked to be 'game on' early in the 2nd half after Adam Aigbokhae dotted down for Sale following some nice handling from teammates Pope and Davenport.

South decided to go back to basics, and used their forward dominance to squeeze the life out of Sale. The introduction of prop Ed Hopkins seemed to galvanise the South Leicester scrum which quickly became too powerful for Sale to deal with and the scores soon followed.

Summer signing Dale Aggar crashed over following another well worked line-out, and soon after, a lovely little baseline snipe from Chris Gibbs saw him notch his first try of the season. There was another first, as Tristan Trehan got his first try since moving from back row to wing, benefiting from a Sonny Bill Williams style offload from Chris Bale.

Sale hit back for what turned out to be a consolation try through Matthew Postlethwaite, before the evergreen Rod McNaughton got his 2nd try of the game to round things off for the Green and Whites.

Man of the Match: Will Ward, a strong performance from the Captain at both the set piece and tirelessly around the park.