The first weekend of the 2022/23 season was a busy one for Crewe & Nantwich RUFC.
Saturday saw the Girls, JNR Academy, Ladies, Men’s 1st & Men’s 3rds teams all play at home, while the Men’s 2nds had an away game at Sandbach.

Sunday started early for the rest of the club. While the Minis & Juniors headed out on the pitch for their first training session, the Colts also headed up the road to Sandbach for the opening game of their Halbro NW Colts League campaign.

Playing up the hill and into the wind, the C&N lads put pressure onto Sandbach straight away, carrying hard and going through phases they had Sandbach on the back foot. A well taken penalty kick to the corner had C&N setup a driving maul off the lineout and Jay Latham was not going to be stopped from going over, though the extras were narrowly missed C&N took a 0 – 5 point lead.

C&N continued to pressure in attack and with solid defence they kept Sandbach having to force the issue. The result was a penalty for off the feet being slotted by Toby Evans, to see C&N lead 0 – 8.

At this stage injuries and substitutions took the edge of the C&N attack and Sandbach started to gain a foothold. Last gasp defence kept them out, but eventually Sandbach could not be denied, going over to be 5 – 8 down at the break.

With the hill and wind behind them, C&N expected to take control of the game in the second half, but it was Sandbach who dominated as C&N struggled with their exit strategy. With growing confidence, Sandbach first went over from a well worked driving maul, quickly followed by a try in the corner to lead 15 – 8.

C&N Colts are made of strong stuff, with no loss of energy they got back in the game and moving up the pitch. A great carry by Thomas Hollins released a charging Zach Pederson who was not going to be stopped and C&N were back at 15 – 13.

Sandbach were not going away though, again making their territory and possession pay with another forwards try to go 22 – 13 up.

Heading into the last 10 minutes, a return run from deep should have seen Nigel Ngoni through on the wing, but his commitment to the ensuing ruck and tireless work by the whole team set Zach up and again he was not going to be stopped. With the extras well taken by Joe Waterhouse, the game was on a knife edge at 22 – 20

It was all C&N in attack now, with time ticking down they carried and worked their way forward but Sandbach held them well. However, all that pressure had to pay, with Sir finally raising his arm for a penalty in front of the posts.

If Joe knew the kick was a match winner we don’t know, but as it went through the posts the whistle went to end a great weekend of Rugby for C&N, with the Colts winning 22 – 23.

Many thanks to Sandbach RUFC for making us so welcome and good luck to them for the rest of the season.