High flying Alnwick prove too strong for Sandal

It was a hard-fought game with good periods of quality open play displayed by both teams, although in the end, Alnwick’s well drilled defensive play earned them the win that puts them second in the table.

The first half saw Sandal with the majority of the possession, but they found it difficult to break through the Alnwick defence.

The Sandal scrum was particularly dominant, pushing Alnwick off the ball a number of times. However, Alnwick scored two very well constructed tries from open play, both converted and topped up with a successful penalty to leave the score 17-0 at the change of ends.

The second half saw both teams matching each other for both possession and defence for the first 20 minutes.

In the 10th minute, following a strong sustained attack by the backs, Sandal were camped close to the Alnwick try line for several minutes, with multiple attempts at forcing their way over the Alnwick try line, but they again failed to penetrate the solid defence.

Notable in this period was Sandal centre Mac Walsh's brilliant try-saving tackle two metres from his own try line.

Alnwick scored their third try, which was converted to put them 24 points ahead.

That was quickly followed by a strong attack from Sandal, started by Tom Hodson with great interplay across the back line to get his team within a few metres of the Alnwick try line before being tackled.

Josh Hough then picked up from the resulting ruck, going over the line to score Sandal’s only try of the match, converted by Tom Hodson, to make the score 24-7.

When Sandal were penalised within their 22 for a tackle off the ball, Alnwick kicked to the corner, before securing the ball from the line out, and driving over to score their last converted try.

Overall, a very enjoyable competitive match that was a lot closer in performance than the scoreline suggests.

The Sandal side played for the full 80 minutes against a very well organised Alnwick team and they are continuing to improve with each outing.