Sandal 12, Preston Grasshoppers 56: Sandal no match for gr-eight Hoppers

From the start the home side looked to use their strong pack to battle the visitors but Hoppers were well organised and soon began to dominate in the scrum and line-out.

The Preston backs also had a good day with many breaks involving several players, moving the ball confidently with quick hands.

Tries from Sam Stott, Ben Pearson, team captain Chris Taylor, Tyler Spence, Ollie Trippier and three from Matt Lamprey, all converted by Pearson, cemented an impressive victory and moved the team up to second place in the league table.

Head coach Paul Arnold was pleased with the performance:

“I think we always knew it was going to be dogged, they have a good pack and they got stuck in from the start. We obviously dominated them in the scrum, our back five worked really well and put a lot of pressure on at the breakdown.

"We scored some really nice tries and I thought there were some impressive performances, Jordan Dorrington and Tyler Spence came back today, Craig Procter, on his first start was solid and did nothing wrong and then Rob Meadows on the wing who, considering he’s a seven, is still keeping his shirt each week.

"The pack was outstanding and we managed to rotate the subs well as it’s a big hill to play up in the second half and I thought the energy levels were superb all the way through.”

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