Sale FC 49
Lymm 26

This was the proverbial game of two halves, played in artic conditions with strong icy wind blowing straight down the pitch. With 1^st team call ups and ‘Christmas time unavailability,’ Lymm fielded a side showing many changes, which has been the norm this season due to the club’s injury crisis and unavailability.

Lymm kicked off against a very strong wind and Sale ran the ball through ineffective tackling to score a converted try.  This was to be a feature of the half along with an inability to string two phases together without dropping the ball. Sale continued to run through weak defence, and Lymm never really threatened Sale who ran up a 42-0 half-time lead.

Although they had the benefit of the strong wind, it certainly was a 42 point advantage. Coach, Peter Millachip, emphasised the basics and that if we didn’t improve we could be looking at a cricket score.

Things didn’t look good, as the kick off was dropped and after a couple of drives Sale score another converted try, 49-0 with 39 minutes left. However it must have been some festive spirit in the half time drink that galvanised Lymm into action. They retained possession well, recycling and going forward through the strong running of Josh Davies and Paddy Jennings. This resulted in a driving maul, up to the Sale line with Tom Oliver claiming the touch down, 49 – 5. Lymm stormed back again with good recycling and offloading and eventually the stocky Henry Simpson barged over from 5 metres for Josh Davies to convert, 49 – 12.

Sale struggled to get their hands on the ball and Lymm’s defence became more tenacious. Lymm continued to drive forward with the dynamic Paddy Jennings proving a handful for the Sale defence. It was after a series of these drives that Will Leach provided a switch pass 10 metres from the Sale line for Josh Davies to power through for a try, which he converted, 49 – 19. It was that man Leach again, who after good driving play by the rejuvenated Kieran O’Callaghan, managed to get his hands free to slip a neat pass to Rory Riddell, who showed great pace to score from 40 metres, rounding the full back for another converted try.

That was the end of the scoring with Lymm spurning a couple of opportunities for tries and Sale keeping the ball up the jumper for the last 5 minutes.

FT 49 – 26.

Sale capitalised on Lymm’s poor play in the first half to take their chances and looked in a different class. However, Lymm proved in the second half they could be dangerous with the ball as a number of players raised their game. Notably in the forwards, Kieran O’Callaghan’s influence at scrum and loose grew as the game went on, Rory Riddell worked tirelessly in both attack and defence. In the backs Josh Davies had one his best games, making big in-roads into the Sale defence, Paddy Jennings showed power and aggression and Will Leach grew into the game as it progressed distributing well and making some nice breaks. The next 2’s game is on 5th Jan home to Preston Grasshoppers 2’s.

Squad:

Dave Williamson, Josh Hamer, Josh Davies, Paddy Jennings, Jorge Reynolds, Will Leach, Henry Simpson, P Widdrington, Rory Riddell, J Portiss, Oli Chesworth, Tom Oliver, Kieran O’ Callaghan, David Coon, Jack Porteous, J McKeefe