Tough Afternoon

Anyone who already didn’t realise this could be a tough season, got a wake-up call from a Sandbach performance which blew the team away. Over half their team had come through their mini / junior / youth teams.

The question now is, are they a top three team (they certainly looked as if they could be at times) or just an average mid-table one, and there is a lot more of this quality of rugby to be faced.

Joe Anderson (ex Carlisle) made his debut in the front row, in the second row Alex Ryder kept Liam Hayton on the bench whilst Alistair Thompson and Joe Lashley came in for the injured Matt Houghton and Greg Wrathall, but Steven Nelson was back after sitting out the game against Moortown last week. Behind the pack Jordan Johnson, strong performances in pre-season saw him keep Lewis Kincart on the bench. With Ben Dixon injured and Danny Barker unavailable, Dan Lowther and Mark Carruthers were in the centre, whilst Dini Noyo returning to the club after a season away, was on the right wing, and there was a debut for Ignacio Cisint at fullback.

Mark Irving who had a year with Kendal in the 2018/19 relegation season, is now a player/coach at Sandbach and played in their front row.

Sandbach started well, moving the ball at speed, with quick offloads and strong support play, but missed a few opportunities before taking the lead after five minutes. Centre Jack Leach opened the Kendal defence, and whilst Dini Noyo managed to stop him, the ball was quickly recycled for a try from outside half Laurie Essenhigh. Fullback James Preston missed what appeared a simple conversion, but then kicked well for the rest of the afternoon 5v0

Kendal came into the game and it looked as if Ignacio Cisint had opened the scoring when he took a penalty quickly, but it turned out the referee was yellow carding Sandbach backrow man Ali Burton (not sure if for a dangerous tackle, not being retreating when the penalty was taken or a deliberate knock on ?).

Kendal took a scrum which had to be reset several time, but finally the forwards set up a drive to the line, for the ball to then be released to Dan Lowther for the try. 5v5

Failure to breach the Kendal defence saw Sandbach take a kick at goal when Kendal were caught off side, and the successful kick marked the start of a burst of scoring in the last fifteen minutes of the half. 8v5

Multiple breaks opened up the Kendal defence and hooker Alex Bishop out in the backline found himself running through a gap for a try which was converted. 15v5

Three minutes later from a lineout Sandbach set up several good drives, and when the final one was stopped illegally, the referee awarded a penalty try, and yellow carded Reece Tomlinson for his part. 22v5

This saw Liam Hayton come on, with Alex Ryder coming off.

A poor Kendal kick went to Sandbach wing Elliot Morris who did the hardwork, for backrow man Ali Burton to score the bonus point try, which was converted 29v5.

Lewis Kincart came on for Jordan Johnson

Sandbach added a further converted try in injury time for a 36v5 lead.

Kendal had the benefit of a slope in the second half, but any comeback was going to be a massive task.

Joe Anderson was receiving treatment at halftime and was replaced when the teams came out by Dan Reid.

It took Sandbach just two minutes to extend their lead, twice running penalties quickly for scrum half Nick Alsop to score 43v5.

After ten minutes Kendal pulled a score back. The forwards set up several drives to the line, and finally Steven Nelson got the ball down with Glen Weightman converting 43v12.

After twenty minutes Joe Anderson returned replacing Glenn Chesher.

The next Sandbach try came from a long solo run from centre Jack Leech, this time no conversion 48v12.

Alex Rider returned in place of Joe Lashley,

Leech scored again five minutes later, gathering a poor pass, then managing to force his way over despite being tackled. This one was converted 53v12.

With ten minutes to play, as Sandbach attacked the Kendal line, Lewis Kincart was yellow carded.

From short range Sandbach No.6 Harry Hughes who had had a good game went over 62v12 with the conversion.

The scoreline did not flatter Sandbach, with excellent support play and inter-passing.

In truth Kendal were bad as Sandbach were good, with poor kicking giving the ball back easily to Sandbach, several kicks being charged down, some weak tackling allowing Sandbach players to make ground, and poor handing seeing opportunities lost (mostly due to passes being thrown at the receiving player), and the normal issues in the lineout.

Positives were re-start kicks where the ball was often close to being stolen back and several times saw Sandbach knock-on due to the pressure. The scrum did OK despite the massive presence of Mark Irving in the opposite pack, and Joe Anderson looks a good recruit. Ignacio Cisint looks another good recruit, but needs support players to take the ball on when he is stopped. Dini Noyo had a good game and on another day one of a number of attempted interceptions would have gone to hand and seen a run to the line, but instead the ball failed to go to hand.

The bad news for Sandbach’s future opponents is there was probably still room for improvement with several large overlaps being wasted (although often good support play saw tries come from them), and not turning early dominance into points.

MAN OF THE MATCH

Ignacio Cisint

Only a small vote, with just the loyal band of supporters making the long trip (and longer back) but Ignacio ended up a clear winner with three times the votes of anyone else - with the rest being evenly spread over seven players.

OTHER RESULTS

Not a good weekend for Cumbrian teams - and next weekend we play Stockport who got the second highest score, whilst Kirkby see if they can do any better against Sandbach (don't forget what they did to Preston Grasshopers, a week after they thrashed us)