Sandal hit back after tough start to earn revenge with hard fought home success against Driffield

​The return home game proved to be hard fought, interesting and as exciting as anticipated with Sandal being put under pressure in the first quarter, but regaining their composure to slowly take control for an eighth home victory of the season, writes Howard Newton.

In the process they avenge their away loss to Driffield in September.

Playing with the slope, Sandal scored first with a Tom Hodson penalty on three minutes, but Driffield replied in kind and quickly followed up with an unconverted try.

Another penalty was kicked and to add to the home side’s problems Luke Adams was yellow carded for an alleged high tackle. From the resulting penalty the visitors took play into the Sandal 22 from where good back division work saw them score a second try to go 16-3 up.

Following the resumption and with the help of a penalty Sandal contested their line-out well on the Driffield five-metre line from where Will Henshall was helped over the line by his fellow forwards.

Hodson landed a penalty to reduce the arrears further then Jake Adams made a telling break down the wing, handed on to Alex Edler who made ground before handing back for Adams to score an unconverted try in the corner to level the score at 16-16.

As half time approached Driffield added a further penalty, but in stoppage time Sam Millard crossed near the posts following a break by Jake Adams and Hodson’s conversion made it 23-19 at the break.

At the start of the second half Sandal immediately conceded a penalty in front of the posts and Driffield had no trouble in converting to take the score to 23-22.

With play moving into the Driffield 22 Sandal put pressure on the visitors’ defence and with Declan Thompson at the forefront Tom Hodson gathered and avoided tackles to cross in the top corner, which he followed up with a touchline conversion to increase his side’s lead to 30-22 in the 46th minute.

From the resumption kick Sandal lost Millard to a yellow card when during his attempt to collect a high ball he allegedly made an illegal contact with a Driffield player and as a result the ensuing penalty was converted to reduce the home side’s lead to 30-25.

Play then moved into the visitors’ territory and after the Sandal forwards had made several pick and go exchanges a penalty was awarded. From a line-out a rolling maul was formed from where Declan Thompson crossed.

Hodson’s conversion moved the score to 37-25 with plenty of time on the clock for either side to seize victory.

To this end it was Driffield who applied the pressure to the point of scoring an unconverted try in the bottom corner, taking the score to 37-30 after 60 minutes.

Then followed a tense 20 minutes when both sides had their opportunities to score but both defences held tight and with Driffield spending the final minutes striving to add points to their score the game finally petered out with Sandal posting a 37-30 victory.

Unfortunately in these final minutes Will Henshall suffered a serious leg injury which will keep him out of the game for some time.

Sandal had come up against a Driffield side who played with enterprise and purpose, but after their early scoring the home side settled down to the task of securing a win which they did, but not without hard work and endeavour.

A trip to Heath is next up for Sandal in a fifth versus third clash this Saturday.