By David Wilkinson
I am tempted to start with top versus bottom, which on paper it might be, but rugby is never quite that simple; indeed the phrase has been banned within the squad this week. The fantastic contest for the Cheshire Cup last season is still fresh in everyone’s minds; and whilst we had a good second half, early in the season at Bradwell Road, the first half was very competitive. Sandbach has been besotted with injuries this season, which has cost them dearly, in many close contests; even though they have only two wins under their belt, their points’ difference is better than that of Penrith in 7th place.
The two squads at full tilt against each other on Thursday
These were Darren Lamonds’ thoughts after Thursday nights’ training session: “Last week was very difficult, Tuesday night was off, and then Thursday night, on the frozen Astro, really limited what we could do; in contrast this week, we’ve had the best sessions of all season, 36 on Tuesday and 39 tonight, two very good squads going at each other. Picking the squad for this week, with everyone available, besides Phil Laing, has been the hardest this season; and naturally there will be some very disappointed players in the twos this week. We will be respecting Sandbach’s challenge in all areas of the game on Saturday, and we will be going through our usual processes that have served us well this season. On their part, they will see Saturday as a spring-board for the coming weeks, where they have a good opportunity of picking up points”.
On paper the 18 does look like the strongest that could be fielded this season, except for Matty Harrison, whose injury may now preclude him for the rest of the season. Barring injury this could be the 18 that travels to Rossendale next week, but that we will have to wait and see.
It will be a full house on Saturday, with a big Sponsors’ pre-match lunch, with the Macclesfield Ladies kicking-off at 12 in their Women’s fixture against Eccles. This is followed by the twos kicking-off at 2.15 also against Sandbach. The 2nd XV will be raring to go after demolishing Lymm last week on their 3G surface, Russ Tomlinson was delighted with their performance: “They replicated their phase game-play from training sessions with the 1st team, it was great to watch”. And then the big one at 3.00; and then, all of this is finished off with a night of Karaoke! The team for Saturday is: 1. Dan Percival, 2. Brendan Berry, 3. Samir Tahraoui, 4.Rhys Davies, 5. Harry Harding, 6. Josh DeGroot 7. Tom Burden, 8. James Oliver – Captain, 9. Dan Martin, 10. Tom Morton, 11. Terence Babarinsa, 12. Harry Blackwell, 13. Harry Oliver, 14. Sam Adu, 15. John O’Donnell, 16. Ollie Longmore, 17. James Cross, 18. Charlie Attis.
