C and N Academy 32 Sale Fc 19

Crewe & Nantwich Senior Academy Colts travelled to Sale FC's CorpAcq Stadium on Sunday, not only after a place in the Cheshire Plate Final but also the bragging rights over Sale.

Following a one-point loss on the first day of the season at Carrington, C&N took the return leg 25 – 17 on their way to winning their Halbro Colts Division. Sunday’s game would see the winner take the mini series 2 – 1.

The Heywood Road Stadium welcomed the C&N players & Supporters. The former home of Sale Sharks had a good home crowd, full of support for their players and some unwanted advice for the C&N supplied referee, as the Society referee had not appeared.

Sale started strongly and a line break from kick off saw them get the ball wide to leave Toby Evans at Full back to make a try saving tackle and win C&N the lineout.

From then on Sale then found themselves stuck in their own half. Strong pressure by the C&N forwards, with Pete Bush leading the charge with his carries, forced Sale into conceding three penalties, all converted by Logan Lynch to have C&N up by 9.

Sale were not ready to roll over though. They put pressure on the C&N defensive line speed to move the ball through hands to score in the corner, with the extras taken with a few minutes left in the half the score was 7 – 9.

From the re-start, C&N took the ball straight back into Sales half with vengeance, supported by their small but very vocal travelling supporters club. Working hard to get within five metres, a quick tap penalty by Pete Bush, supported by the pack, put Olly Griffiths in place to pick and go from the ruck for his fifth try of the season, Logan Lynch converted to see C&N lead 7 – 16 at half time.

With the sun still shining and the more seniors supporters and coaches having reminisced about their school days watching Sale (Dave & John), the second half kicked off and it was back to business for C&N. Hard carries by the forwards and great hands gave Ted Mottram space to makes metres and offload to Jarrad Priestley–Bird whose charge was supported by Will Lacey. Wills offload to Logan went through the hands to Josh Sourbutts who went over for C&N’s second try to lead 7 - 21.

Sale still struggled to get out of their own half and C&N again took advantage of the pressure they put on the Sale forwards. With the referees arm out for a penalty, team Captain Jacob Aston-O'Donovan took an opportunistic pick and go, and with a strong handoff to the Sale defender he was over the line.
With the score at 7 – 26 Sale had to go full bore after points, they finally found an overlap for their very impressive 2nd row who went over in the corner to bring the game to 12 – 26.

A high tackle from Sale gave Logan a chance for three more that were well taken, to see C&N lead by 17. But Sale were still pushing and they took advantage of a fast pitch and some injuries to C&N to bring the score back to 19 – 29 with a converted try.

But C&N kept up the pressure on Sale and showed as a team the desire to win that has been developed over a long season off success. With the seconds ticking down, Sale again penalised at the breakdown to leave Logan to take three more and see the clock run down on a 19 – 32 victory to C&N.

A fantastic result against a strong and talented Sale side, Crewe and Nantwich go on the the Cheshire finals on the 24th of April against Wilmslow at Lymm Rufc.

Try Scorers - Jacob x1, Josh x 1, Olly G x 1
Conversions - Logan x 1
Pens - Logan x 5