Bradford & Bingley 5 Sandal 20 This was not a game that will live long in the memory of either side as the visitors took the spoils through the excellent kicking of stand-off Greg Wood, who landed five penalties from the five opportunities he was given.
The home side never looked like they were going to pull back the deficit despite playing with the slope and a strong wind at their backs in the second half, even through Sandal had only managed to take a 12 points to five advantage in with them at half-time.
Aside from the odd bullocking run from skipper Guy Ford and a couple of half-breaks from wing man Adam Wellington, the Bees looked bereft of any attacking ideas and it was the Sandal back line which looked the sharper whenever they had the ball in hand.
Indeed the Sandal pack were largely a match for the Bees pack, who have been able to bully the opposition off the ball in most games over the last couple of seasons.
The Bees pack did manage to engage the forward gears from a scrum near the Sandal line to allow Ford to plough over for their score late in the first half but there was not much for the Wagon Lane crowd to cheer from a pedestrian performance in the close encounters.
Sandal were often quickest to the breakdown and turned over half a dozen possessions from the tackle. The visiting back line were rewarded for their quicker hands and feet with a well taken score out to the right of the posts from Alex Orr and were perhaps unlucky that the referee pulled them back for a forward pass when the line beckoned in the second half.
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