Sandal’s first half lead blown away by high flying Alnwick

The Milnthorpe Green men came into the game off the back of three successive victories, but despite a promising first half display they were blown away after the break as they lost 52-17, writes Howard Newton.

Prior to the kick-off much was expected against a side currently holding the league’s second position, but again the game turned out to be a game of two halves with Sandal winning the first but then totally losing any semblance of order in the second to concede 38 points without reply, registering the season’s worst defeat.

Playing with the slope Sandal was soon awarded a penalty to find touch in Alnwick’s half. From the ensuing line-out the ball found Will Henshall midfield who broke several tackles before touching down under the posts. Tom Hodson converted to give Sandal an encouraging 7-0 lead after three minutes.

Following a missed Alnwick penalty Sandal spent time in their opposition’s 22 but were unable, try as they might, to turn pressure into points. An infringement then gave the visitors the opportunity to slowly move play up field from where a kick ahead put them in a position from where they scored a converted try to level the scores after 18 minutes.

Four minutes later the home side regained the lead with a Hodson penalty. Then from a scrum on half-way they built up pressure with well executed inter-passing involving backs and forwards to take play into the Alnwick five-metre area where Declan Thompson picked up from a tackle to crash over. With Hodson adding the extras Sandal were 17-7 ahead.

The home side continued to batter the visitors’ line for several minutes, but again without success. A penalty to Alnwick then allowed the side to turn a solid defence into a measured attacking mode, which in the 41st minute gave their right winger the space to score a converted try, reduced the Sandal lead to a slim 17-14 at the interval.

The second half started well for Sandal as they showed some enterprise in attack, but when Alnwick were awarded a penalty in the 43rd minute play was taken well into the home side’s territory and from a line-out the visitors exercised their strength to give their centre the room to touch down. A conversion was added giving Alnwick the lead for the first time.

Following some indifferent play by Sandal the visitors scored their bonus point try and with the conversion their lead had been increased to 28-17 after 54 minutes.

By now Sandal’s composure had been severely damaged to the extent that Alnwick added another converted try to their score.

The only hope now was damage limitation, but even that proved difficult when the visitors broke down field from a scrum in their own 22 to score again.

Alnwick added two further tries in the last 10 minutes to take their points tally up to 52 as by the end they showed why they are second in the league.