Sandal fail to make lead stick as Northern fight back to win
Sandal were unable to build on a half-time lead as they sank to a 38-25 loss to Regional One North East pace setters Northern.
In their first competitive visit to Sandal to play senior rugby, Northern were seeking their fourth successive victory since moving up a league while Sandal were hoping to halt a run of two defeats.
Northern started the game well and quickly capitalised on early possession to score after three minutes.
This didn’t dishearten Sandal; they gathered themselves and played good rugby with strong runs from Walsh and good yards made by Jukes on the left flank.
Sandal looked in command with a controlled rolling maul and Callum Burden went over the line to open Sandal’s account.
The hosts had a good spell of possession and kept control of the ball with simple interchanges between the forwards which kept the momentum.
From the forwards’ possession, the ball was sprayed out wide to full-back Henry West who beat two players to score a well worked try in the left corner.
After the restart, the forwards took control again and pushed Northern back, resulting in a penalty that was easily knocked through by West. A strong drive from Richard Travis Carr resulted in a try and Sandal seemed in control as they went into half time 20-14 to the good.
Northern emerged from half time with a point to prove and they took control of the game through their pack as Sandal simply could not get their hands on the ball.
Tries from the visitors took the game away from Sandal and Northern were too much for the home side’s defence.
A breakaway try from Declan Thompson in the dying minutes of the game gave Sandal a point but it was too little too late.
Sandal have proven they can compete in this division and they must get back to basics and control the game.