South beat Sandbach in high scoring game of two halves

Sandbach were the latest visitors to Welford Road in round 8 of N3M league matches. South were determined to get back on track after the debacle at Old Halesonians and the two defeats to the Cheshire side from last season.
Gareth Kerr, Lee Robinson, Keiran Stone, Stu Bale and Connor Smith all returned to the squad while Will Cave moved to outside centre. George Ord and Ed Hopkins joined Smith on the bench.

South started off well, with the blustery wind, forcing the visitors to concede a number of scrummages close to their own line. A yellow card for one of their props enabled South to take advantage of the numerical mis-match and rumble over the Sandbach try line for Simon Johnson to touch down. Mark (Mike in this mornings Rugby Paper) Lord added the conversion. Sandbach missed a penalty attempt soon after, but Lord replied with two penalties from long range to take the home side into a 13-0 lead. Chris Bale limped off with a damaged ankle with George Ord coming on. Will Ward moved to blindside flanker and was an increased handful to the Cheshire side. He already ruled the lineout having a direct influence in winning initial possession for quick hands to move the ball out wide to Lee Robinson. He literally ran over his opposite number for South’s second try in the right hand corner.
Lord’s fine conversion moved the score onto 20-0 in South’s favour.
Sandbach clawed back a penalty before Lord fed Will Cave on a great line to run through the visitors defence stepping the full back to touch down under the posts. Lord’s conversion was a formality.
Lord added another penalty and set up Robinson who again split the defence for his second and South’s bonus point gaining try. Lord narrowly missed the conversion. As the half drew to a close South lost Luke Coltman to the sin bin and Sandbach converted their second penalty. The score of 35-6 at the break, however, reflected South’s superiority in all departments.

The second half was in complete contrast as South proceeded to shoot themselves in the foot. Poor first up tackling and wayward box kicking gave too much possession to the accomplished Sandbach back line. They immediately ran in two converted tries to get back into the game at 35 – 20 and could have had more had it not been for some handling errors.
South looked shakey in this period although Lord added his third penalty to take the gap to 18 points. Again the visitors countered with their industrious openside flanker initiating play leading to their third converted try. Lord missed a penalty while Sandbach converted two kicks to get within five points and the South faithful were on edge – squeaky bum time in the extreme!
Respite came in the last minutes of the game after a penalty kick for the corner and a series of dynamic South forward drives at the visitor’s line.
Held up over the line South dominated three scrummages resulting in further penalties. The referee, Mike Bebbington, who had an excellent game, had no option, but to award a penalty try to South as the visitor’s scrum was torn apart. Lord converted with the last kick of the game and South were home 45-33 for a much needed victory.

Certainly a game of two halves with shared dominance from both sides. The blustery wind chose to die in the second half so South can’t use that as an excuse for their less than average display.
35-6 to South in the first half, 10-27 to Sandbach in the second.

South gained the bonus point in the first half onslought, their late forward dominance got them out of jail and stopped Sandbach gaining a losing bonus point – which they probably deserved. It can't be very often that a team scores 33 points away from home and yet comes away with nothing.

A fascinating contest that could have gone either way.

Now is the time to try to put together a run of victories starting at Sunny Scunny next week and at local rivals Syston the following week.

South squad: Graney, Robinson, Cave, Owens H, Kerr (Smith), Lord, Aley, Bale C, (Ord), Johnson, McLaurin, Bale S, Ward, Stone, Coltman (Hopkins), McNaughton.

Men of the Match: Will Ward, Josh McLaurin, Will Cave, Lee Robinson and Mark Lord for the 20 points off his trusty right boot.