Sandbach hold out frustrated Syston (From Crewe Guardian)

Sandbach hold out frustrated Syston

1:04pm Monday 29th October 2012 in Sport

Syston 0 Sandbach RUFC 26

SANDBACH produced a clinical performance in Leicester to keep their hosts scoreless and earn a bonus-point victory in the National League Three.

Considering the number of players affected by injury or holidays Sandbach did well to keep a fired-up Syston side scoreless, particularly as the hosts flew out of the traps in the early stages and kept the ball doggedly.

For the first 10 minutes it was all Syston, as the home side recycled the ball well and caused Sandbach a number of problems in the set pieces.

Fortunately for Sandbach their hosts were unable to turn pressure into points, even to the extent of eschewing reasonable penalty attempts on goal for kicks to touch.

After 18 minutes and in their first real assault on the Syston line, Sandbach’s forwards drove steadily and put scrum-half Mark Bird in a position to pop the ball cleverly for Chris Davenport to charge over.

Will Cargill, taking over kicking duties, made a difficult conversion look easy.

Having taken the sting from the Syston attack the game became more balanced and although the home team were still edging the possession statistics they were unable to breach the well-organised Sandbach defence.

The next Sandbach try came from a scrum on the Syston 10 metre line.

A long pass from Bird gave Cargill the space to make a diagonal break through the charging Syston defence and loft a long pass into the arms of winger Rich Murray.

In the 38th minute Matt Beesley was yellow-carded for a blatant offside tackle at a ruck 10 metres from the Sandbach line.

But Sandbach reorganised and powered back up the pitch to score a text book try to make the half time score 19-0, Dan Massey cutting through the home defence with a powerful drive to put his side in the driving seat at the break.

With the winds at their backs Syston came out swinging in the second half and mounted an unrelenting 25 minute spell of pressure that tested Sandbach’s resolve to the limit.

It is a sign of the visitor’s spirit that they did not break, with fine defence from Cargill, Marcus Broad, Dan Massey and Jack Leech keeping Syston at bay thanks to some determined tackling.

After sustaining so much pressure Sandbach dealt the final insult on 75 minutes, winning a lineout on 10 metres and recycling the ball twice before George Oakey dummied and dived over, giving Cargill a chance to complete the scoring with a kick.

The top five teams in the division all won on the day, meaning Sandbach stay in fifth place albeit with a slightly increased cushion above Broadstreet.

On Saturday, second-placed Ampthill RFC visit Bradwall Road for what promises to be another thunderous game between two sides meeting for the first time.