Sandal RUFC aiming to deliver a Christmas bonus against Burnage

The last match of the year sees the Milnthorpe Green team have a winnable contest with their opponents just one place and two points above them in the table, from one game more.

Both teams are currently clear of the bottom two, but know they need points to make sure they do not get dragged into a relegation dogfight in 2022.

Burnage have won just three of their 13 matches while Sandal have also recorded three victories from their 12 and have fewer losing bonus points than Saturday’s opponents.

Both are in need of improvement from their latest efforts with Burnage losing 59-0 to Preston Grasshoppers and Sandal also failing to get over the tryline in a 31-3 defeat away to Wirral.

On a heavy pitch it was not easy to put together any flowing rugby and it did not help Sandal that they found it difficult in the scrums.

Wirral’s forward strength also showed early on when they went for a catch and drive from a line-out and were successful with Nick Hearn touching down for an unconverted try.

Sandal dug in and replied when Jake Adams put what turned out to be their only points on the board with a penalty landed from 35 metres out.

Keen tackling ensured the score stayed at 5-3 until just before half-time as a forward drive ended with Hayden Long crossing close to the posts. The referee was not clear as to whether Hayden had touched down successfully, but in a great sporting gesture Sandal themselves advised the referee that it was a try.

With James Annetts adding the conversion it was 12-3 at the break.

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Wirral started the second half strongly with more strong forward play before they moved the ball out to the backs where Tom Cole burst through a gap to score a try that was converted by Annetts.

Sandal enjoyed a spell of pressure themselves, but stout defence kept them out even though they had many phases of play.

A long clearance from Dan Harvey eventually saw the visitors’ territorial advantage over as it put pressure on the back three, which led them to being forced to touch down.

From this position and scrum advantage, Tom Parry crossed close to the posts giving Wirral the try bonus point. With Annetts adding the extras once again the lead was up to 26-3 after 65 minutes.

To their credit, Sandal did not throw in the towel as they tried to hit back with a rare backs move and a kick ahead was just touched down by Wirral to deny them a try their efforts had deserved.

When play was once again back down the other end a scrum close to the line led to a pick up by James Reeve and a five-metre run to the line to score. The conversion was missed, but Wirral had done more than enough to clinch their 31-3 victory, which saw them move back up to seventh place.

For Sandal after this hard graft came to nothing home comforts will be welcoming this week in their last league fixture before they travel to take on bottom of the table Northwich on Saturday, January 8.

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