With gale force winds driving rain across the pitch throughout, this might have been expected to be a game for the rugby purists, with ball tucked up jumpers and forwards going toe to toe, but both sides looked to play expansive rugby and each managed to produce some very impressive handling - albeit mostly ending with a frustrating handling error! Sale started the stronger, and, with an apparently decisive edge in the scrums tested the home defence. This held tight until the 20th minute, when the visitors took advantage of two successive penalties to win a lineout some 10 metres from Stortford's line. With a very well-organised maul outmanoeuvring the Stortford pack, swinging them round to the short side, Sale were able to launch backrow, Joe Gilmore into space for him to crash over for a try close to the posts, easily converted by Oliver Davies. This seemed to galvanize the home team, who countered quickly to put the visitors under extreme pressure with some excellent running and offloading, but handling errors at crucial moments prevented a score until the half-time whistle beckoned. With a penalty advantage in their favour inside Sale's 22, Dan Powell produced a trademark chip kick over the last line of defence and Alex Gilham did a great job to dive and catch the ball at full stretch over the line to touch down under the posts. Chris Bolton converted to take the teams into the - extremely welcome! - break, all square.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first, with both sides looking to stretch the opposition defence with quick handling, but handling errors and strong defences preventing scores. Stortford now had a slight edge, but the visitors still looked dangerous in possession, as the game swung to and fro. The home side didn't help its cause by conceding a number of breakdown penalties in midfield and had to produce more stern defending to hold Sale out on a couple of occasions. The big breakthrough, though, came after 58 minutes, when Josh Stannard touched down, after a period of concerted pressure by the pack from a 5m lineout had progressively sucked in the Sale defenders, creating a big overlap for the winger. BIT Solutions' Man of the Match, Will Rogers played a crucial part in the build up, making yards from a break off the back of a scrum near Stortford's own 22 creating room for Powell to put in a telling cross field kick into space and a good team chase forced the visitors into panic mode, leading to a crucial penalty. The flyhalf added an outstanding conversion through the gale. The visitors refused to give up, though, and, aided by a couple of ill-judged Stortford kicks, launched threatening attacks of their own. These foundered on some more stern defending and, despite losing Powell to a rather harsh late yellow card for what was deemed to have been a deliberate knock-on, as he attempted to intercept a long, floating pass around the halfway line, the home side was able to hold on for the remaining couple of minutes for a very hard-fought win against tough opposition.

Special thanks today to Matchday Sponsors, Tees for their considerable, continuing support and to MOTM Sponsors, BIT Solutions, who are also fantastic Club supporters.