South Lancs & Cheshire Division 1
Sale F.C. 34 Dukinfield 10
Sale won this match by producing some confident play to score a total of 26 points in the opening minutes of each half.
In the second minute Sale got the best possible start as Chris Lillie made a break on the half-way line running deep into the visitors “22” before releasing Jack Moorhouse to score under the posts with Mike Raikes adding the extras for a seven point lead.
Ten minutes later, the Lillie-Moorhouse combination worked again as the winger put in another strong run before Moorhouse broke through the defence to give a scoring opportunity to Tom Holloway who made no mistake with the try, and again Raikes added the conversion for a 14-0 lead.
Sale continued to dominate play with most of the match in the Dukinfield half and Raikes added a penalty with a fine kick from 40 metres. Dukinfield had their first real pressure on the Sale line on the half hour which ended with a try for No. 8 Spiers to narrow the gap to 17-5 at the break.
The hosts started the second half as they started the first with Moorhouse rounding off a neat move to cross for a try, but Raikes was unlucky with his conversion as the ball rebounded off the upright. Almost from the restart Sale put in an excellent handling move between forwards & backs to expose gaps in the visitors defence, which ended with Lillie touching down for a try and this time Raikes made no mistake with the conversion, as Sale were almost out of sight at 29-5.
Dukinfield continued to use their pack to good effect and started to have more of the game and gained a second try just on the hour through hooker Cousen. With ten minutes remaining Sale had the final say as Dave Blackwell went over from close range to complete the scoring.
Neil Thallon