Sandbach hosted Altrincham Kersal in this Cheshire Cup1st round fixture. Conditions were very wet under foot and windy but at least the rain held off. Having lost to AK away a couple of weeks ago Sandbach knew this wasn’t an easy fixture, but for the first time this season had a decent sized squad with a full bench.
AK took the first points with a try out wide, conversion missed which was what was needed to kick the home team into life and they responded with a terrific attack from the backs followed by an equally impressive score from tighthead prop John Whittaker and a quality conversion by Henry Melrose. The rest of the half was a messy affair with penalty followed by knock-on from both sides.
Second half saw AK increase the pressure and Sandbach trying to force the play repeatedly failed to get their passing to hand. If one of these had stuck it would have been a different story, but it was from one such error that AK stole the ball and ran away to take the lead.Sandbach threw everything at AK and know they could and probably should have won the game but for more errors and strong defence. Eventually with only a few minutes remaining on the clock AK were awarded a penalty which was scored at the second attempt after some costly indiscipline by the home team. This effectively ending the game as a contest.
Sandbach could and should have won, but the high penalty count and poor handling cost them dear.Our thanks go to AK for a good morning’s rugby and good luck in the rest of the competition.
John Whittaker - try
Henry Melrose - conversion