by Rhys Fullerton
Twenty-seven players travelled to Bridgnorth to face Regional 1 hosts
The new season is finally upon us and Sandbach were back in action on Saturday for their penultimate fixture of the pre-season campaign.
A senior squad of twenty-seven players travelled to the Edgar Davies Ground in Shropshire to take on the Regional 1 Midlands side Bridgnorth RFC. The hosts came out on top, winning 36-28 overall.
Due to the firm playing surface, recent fixtures have been played using the RFU adapted laws to ensure player safety. This friendly, however, involved three separate sessions of 30 minutes using the normal laws of rugby.
Sandbach’s pack found itself under pressure from a powerful Bridgnorth scrum. However, there were plenty of positives to take away from each individual session and most importantly, the squad gained valuable game time.
Sandbach started with probably their strongest team and thanks to two lineout drive tries from Matt Davies and two conversions from Matt Randle, Sandbach won the first session 7-14.
Davies scored seven times in 23 games last season and was awarded the 1st XV Coaches’ Player of the Season. The hooker looks to be carrying that form into the new season. Randle, who is lethal from the tee, topped the club’s points tally last campaign with 228 points from 22 starts. This included 70 conversions, 26 penalties and 10 tries, beating his 198 points tally from the previous year.
In the second session, Bridgnorth, who play a level above Sandbach, took the win 17-7. Sandbach fielded the remainder of their squad, including five graduates from last year’s successful Colts team. Sandbach’s only try in this session came from the young winger Jenson Houghton, who scored from a neat kick in behind the defence.
The final session saw Sandbach field a mixture of players and narrowly took a 5–7 win, courtesy of a Henry Barlow try from a blind side break from a lineout. Fly-half Henry Mitchell converted, as he did in the previous session. Bridgnorth almost evened the scores after a try in the last play of the game, but the conversion for the extra points went wide. Overall, the final score was 36-28.
Sandbach RUFC’s Director of Rugby, Andrew Bird, was delighted with a superb display and thanked those supporters who made the trip. He added: “A very purposeful and worthwhile afternoon in Bridgnorth, who compete at Level 5. Lots of positives to take away and build into training this week ahead of our final pre-season fixture against Leek.”
Saturday’s friendly at Bradwall Road will also be played in 30-minute segments in what will be the final run out ahead of the start of the league campaign. The players will be looking to stake their claim for a place in the starting XV in the huge fixture against local rivals Northwich a week on Saturday.
NEXT MATCH
Sandbach Senior XV vs Leek RFC
Saturday 19 September – Kick-off 3pm
Bradwall Road, Sandbach
