Recap

Sale keep pressure on at the top
Sale started the day in third place and in need of a bonus point win against fifth placed Bishop’s Stortford to keep pace with the top two in National One.

With Ladies’ Day festivities in full swing, the dogs started brightly, using their rolling maul to good effect.

The opening score came after 10 minutes when the catch and drive from 5m saw Jake Barron burrow over. 5-0

The visitors lost Austin Pope to a yellow card in the 23rd minute and Sale doubled their lead shortly afterwards when Josh Brown, stopped a metre from the whitewash, succeeded in offloading for the supporting Matt Bradley to score. 10-0

The blue and whites continued to dominate possession and territory but could not add to their score before the break. HT 10-0

It took just 2 minutes of the second period for the dogs to score again as Kieran Wilkinson made an incisive break before releasing James Robins to stroll in; Tom Curtis made no mistake from the tee. 17-0

The visitors were struggling to get any kind of foothold in the game and the bonus point try arrived in the 52nd minute when Tumy Onasanya blasted through the defensive line to score under the posts; Tom Curtis adding the extras. 24-0

The next ten minutes saw the Hertfordshire men play some good attacking rugby and they were rewarded when Alexander Rayment went over in the corner; Daniel Cole adding a fine conversion. 24-7

The dogs were to have the final say though, Ben Bamber doing brilliantly to charge down an attempted chip over the top before collecting the bouncing ball to score; Tom Curtis on target with the conversion. FT 31-7

A good all round display from the boys to earn another bonus point win at Heywood Road and a weekend off now to recharge the batteries for the final push.