CALDY 0 - 24 SANDBACH 1st xiii
A bright crisp Autumn morning welcome at Caldy brought the best out the boys for the first game. Straight from the start strong scrums dynamic rucks and mauls coupled with good hands, elusive running and solid tackling from all was a joy to watch. It was a scrum against the head with RHYS J. and DANNY J surging forward to create the opening for DANNY P. to go racing over for the first try converted by KYRAN D. Continued quality rugby forced Caldy into kicking away possession to relieve pressure which created ample opportunity for strong runs from the back KIERON M and GREG W. shining with good positional sense catching well breaking tackles and running hard and KYRAN D. in his element which was evident in his jinking past 5 defenders to score in the tightest of corners which he then converted. The second half was much in the same vein GUY C. MATT H. JOE C. driving from the restart up to the line. From the resulting line out ALEX B. caught and crashed over for the try, KYRAN D’ s conversion rattled the post. Caldy now warmed to the task and determined defence with JOE C. JIMMY B, ALEX B and KYRAN M leading the way kept a clean sheet. The final score was a typical dummy and quick break from the base of the scrum from RHYS J. (a la Uncle Barry ) to race away 20 m to touch down unopposed. KYRAN D showed consistency with his length and line by hitting the same spot on the post again. KIERON MURPHY was man of the match. TRY SCORERS: Alex Bishop; Kyran Davies; Rhys John; Danny Partington
CONVERSIONS: Kyran Davies (2)
_________________________________________
CALDY 42 - 0 SANDBACH 2nd xiii
In the second game the Caldy giants awoke from their slumber especially the no. 8 who was THE difference in the team with his hard running driving George North type running which very quickly put them two scores in front.With this new confidence, desperate defence became the order of the day as Caldy pressed onwards. Their third score was from a 5 m penalty aka George North was over again despite an heroic tackle from TOM HFurther pressure from Caldy brought some sweet handling rugby to score a 4th try to show they are not just a 1 man team. Highlight of the difficult half was the aka George North rampaging through again and DANNY J’s crunching tackle to stop him, well supported by numerous Sandbach shirts. This spirit shone through into the second half with both teams now entering into end to end rugby. Caldy having the edge to score half way through the half. Then, with a masterful triple subsitution ALEX B, JOE C and MATT H replaced the exhausted and battered GREG W , DANNY J and DANNY P the resilience of the defence was maintained and Caldy gained one late score to round of the day. MAX CLAYTON-BARKER was man of the match. ___________________________________
A day of two different games but it showed that the boys are getting to understand the game more and are now well capable of not only the nice flowing running rugby but also of competing in the close quarter nitty gritty elements of the game and getting as much from this as the fast flowing game. TRUE RUGBY PLAYERS NOT JUST GLORY BOYS/. By Our Guest reporter, STUART JAKEMAN
The morning ended with a potentially serious injury to Joe C. As we have come to expect, our own first aiders were first on the scene and they were quickly joined by a number of Caldy people. We are grateful, as always to Jane and Karen for the work that they do week in and week out and we would also like to thank Caldy for the way in which a traumatic incident was handled.