Sandown travelled away at the weekend to play Purley John Fisher in what was another beautiful day at their ground. From the start, Sandown were up against it; with a large amount of injuries the team has suffered over past weeks, players had to step into positions they are not normally accustomed to. Sandown welcomed the appearance of the Perfect Brothers, Buxton and Tyas who all relished the opportunity of a 1st team game. Robinson stepped in to play 9, Chandler was 10, Price was 12 and many more players were out of their normal positions.

From the off Sandown seemed to have started this game how they ended the last; a combination of quick phase ball through the forwards allowed Harris and Flux to crash it up the middle. Slowly rumbling up the pitch, Sandown were camped out on Purley’s 22. A swift set of hands from Robinson popped the ball to Tyson who unleashed Hunter down the wing to run in and score under the posts.

After the restart Sandown had appeared to take their foot off the gas which allowed Purley to exploit an over-lap out wide and score under the posts. Tyson put up a well-placed restart which saw the fired up Sandown forwards charging underneath; good pressure at the break down lead to a penalty in Sandown’s favour. Flux composed himself and slotted the 3 points.

Just before half time, Purley spotted a miss-match out wide and found their way under the posts for an unconverted try. It soon became clear that this was an inexperienced Sandown squad as a whole which only served to wet Purley’s appetite.

As the second half commenced, Sandown now had everything against them including the sun in their face, and the challenging hill. All Sandown could do was suck it up and focus on playing perfect rugby. With a large majority of possession, it looked as if Sandown had found their feet again and put Purley under pressure on their 22; the crash ball working well, taking us up to the 5m line. A missed placed foot at the break down saw the ball shoot out from Sandown’s ruck and Purley’s winger picked it up to run in under the posts.

From the restart, Sandown forwards charged the ball down and with a big tackle from Flux, lead to Purley holding on and Sandown’s penalty. Flux gave Sandown three points.

After the restart, Sandown were being kept pinned down on their 22 line. Scrappy ball made it difficult for Robinson to get any clean ball so Sandown’s only options was to crash it up. Unfortunately, Sandown received a yellow and with a quick tap penalty, Purley distributed the ball out wide and, with what seemed to be a forward pass, they were in under the posts. The try was unconverted.

As the match came to a close, the team spirit of Sandown’s mix-match team was second to none. The ferociousness and power of the tackles flew in. If Sandown were going to lose, they were going to lose fighting. Robinson fed the back line and with some footwork Tyson and Davis found their way through a gap to take Sandown up to the 5m line. The front 5 continued with the crash ball and the pressure mounted against Purley. A stray foot managed to knock the ball from the back foot of the ruck and Purley scooped it up to score again, the try was unconverted.

Regardless of some decisions made in the game, the boys stuck at it and could hold their heads up after the game. The hopes of a top 3 finish are still very alive if the team can carry the spirit they’ve currently got into the rest of the games, the hopes might well become reality.

TEAM: R.Harris, B.Kulik, C.Skelly, S.Flux, L.Hunter, C.Perfect, D.Woolfenden, S.Branston, D.Robinson L.Chandler, A.Price, S.Tyson, Z.Chiveton, S.Perfect, D.Graham, A.Tyas, A.Buxton,

Try: Hunter
Pen: Flux (2)