Sandal miss key players as they lose out in Papa John's Community Cup competition

With several key players being unavailable Sandal fielded a somewhat weakened side, but competed well up to half-time only for sloppy passing and losing possession too often at the break down to hand the initiative to Macclesfield when more consistent play was required.

From the kick-off the visitors kicked possession into the Sandal half where Jake Adams gathered and tore through the defence before handing on to Ben Reynolds.

He returned the ball to Jake Adams who was able to finish off a brilliant move with a try in the corner after only two minutes.

The conversion was missed and from the resumption the visitors immediately went on the attack, taking up a position within metres of the Sandal line from where a scrum gave the side an easy opportunity to cross for a converted try, which gave them a 7-5 lead with 10 minutes on the clock.

Both sides continued to exchange field positions with penalty kicks from which Sandal took a position within the visitors’ 22. After several unsuccessful attempts to barge over Nick Caralan found a way to score his side’s second try to regain the lead at 10-7 in the 17th minute.

Three minutes later a Macclesfield player received a red card for a dangerous tackle involving a head collision with Danny Groves, which resulted him having to leave the field minutes later. But they immediately drew level with a successful penalty.

Then followed an uneventful period with both sides striving to make the next score and as half-time approached this action fell to Macclesfield when a converted try was added to their score, giving them a 17-10 half-time lead.

The second half got off to a slow start with neither side finding a way to break down two commendable defences until in the 55th minute when the visitors crossed in the bottom corner for an unconverted try.

By now Macclesfield were applying real pressure and were looking the better side. This was endorsed after 64 minutes when they went over for a converted try to take their advantage to 29-10.

Undaunted, the home side still continued to put together attacking moves which eventually gave them a penalty to touch in their opponents’ five-metre area.

From the resulting line-out play the ball was moved across field to give centre James Ellar the chance to cross for his side’s third unconverted try, taking the score to 29-15 as full-time approached.

Some six minutes of stoppage time then ensued and in the final minute Macclesfield landed a drop-goal to take the final score to 32-15.

In fairness Macclesfield were the better side even with only 14 players for three quarters of the game so victory was wholly justified and deserved.

Sandal are next in action in Pool One of the Regional One Plate on Saturday, April 15 when they travel to play Derby. They then face Manchester at home the following week.