Sandbach Sharks were at home to Knutsford. Knutsford are a well organised team and played and passed very well. Sharks started well and stuck to a game plan that worked. Sharks struggled initially to break Knutsford down and were tackled back from the try line on a number of occasions by Knutsford players who did not want to concede - great work. Some great and quick passing saw Sharks take the lead with t3 tries in the first half. Knutsford came out for the second half fired up and this showed with a great run and try. Sharks scored again to put the game beyond reach.
Brian Redpath and Tom Holmes watched the game and awarded Matt Hawkrigg man of the match. Well done Matt and the rest of the team. (31-7)
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Sandbach Saxons played away at Leek. The real story of the Leek match was Saxons ability to tackle and defend against a strong team. After a slow start the forwards warmed well to their task. They were strong in the scrum, lineouts and rucking.
The backs when they held their structure and positions worked well, however when the ball was with Leek, they switched off and did not organises themselves well at the breakdown. On a lighter note, new set plays were introduced for the backs starting from the scrum and these worked very well and resulted in great movement up the pitch.
The Saxons started brightly with a great try by George Ridings and the conversion scored by Nathan Mitchell. Despite some good runs by many members of the team, our tackling meant the opposition ran straight through our "defence" to score.
Players performances to note, Owen and Josh who were committed to the scrums and tackling and put a great deal of effort in. Alex Beech won man of the match for his best game ever. Well done boys, keep it up but make sure we tackle, not tickle !
Saxons report courtesy of our field reporter, Julia Hearn. Great work Julia.