Sat 21 Mar 2026
Sandbach v WPRFC
21st March 2026 – Park lose on the road to Sandbach
Sandbach 61 – 24 WPRFC
This week Park travelled to Sandbach for game 20 of the season and with only two more games left after this one it was going to be a tough game against third in the league. With conditions fine and sunny it was going to be a good day for quality rugby.
Park kicked off the game and got straight into their stride with some strong carries through the forwards and quick ruck play to the back line using kicks to turn the opposition, but Sandbach held their own and used their kicking game to get them out of their half. Park had a break in the first 5 minutes through a quick back line attack, but Sandbach stood firm in defence. We made a couple of line breaks, but a few errors stunted our attack, but scrum was dominant, and we needed to exploit this within the game. The first points of the game came on 14 minutes when Sandbach were attacking on the halfway line and their centre stepped through the line and beat our defence to score (7-0). Park restarted and Matt Treacy won the ball in the air knocking it back to our forwards who took it into contact and then the ball went out wide to Will Du Randt who beat the defence on the outside and chipped over the fullback but the ball was kicked out in the in goal area forcing a scrum 5 metres out. Park dominated the scrum and pushed Sandbach over the line and captain Dan Williams scored with Cameron Flanagan adding the conversion to level the scores (7-7). The next 15 minutes was a good spectacle of rugby with both sides defending well but not being able to score any points, but we dominated in the scrums and also defending our line on a couple of occasions. On 35 minutes Sandbach were attacking in our 22 following a number of phases which Park defended well but we penalised at a ruck and Sandbach took a quick tap and scored under the posts to take the lead (14-7). Just after the try there was an altercation which ended in a red card for Eli Fakailoatonga and left Park with 14 players for remainder of the game.
Half time score 14 - 7
Sandbach got the second half underway and immediately in their first attack they broke through the line and scored to extend their lead on 41 minutes (21-7). Park needed to work hard now with 14 players and on 46 minutes we had a lineout on our 10 metre line which we won cleanly and went wide with the ball and Riewoldt Teabuge made a great break from inside our own half to near the 22 and off loaded to Will Du Randt who got into the 22 before being tackled and then we went through three phases of attack through and forward which got us a couple of metres out and Ross Morrin saw and opportunity and picked up and scored unfortunately the conversion hit the post (21-12). Sandbach struck back with four tries on 56 minutes, 59 minutes 61 minutes and 63 minutes (49-12) to take the game away from Park but Park dug deep and 65 minutes Rooss Morrin was in for his second try from close quarters following a good period of phase play from Park (49-19). The extra player was making the game difficult for Park and Sandbach capitalised again on 68 minutes to extend the lead further (56-19). On 75 minutes Park had a good period of possession and territory and forced the error from Sandbach in their 22 with a penalty, Park went for the corner, and we won the lineout and set up a driving maul, but the maul went to ground and Park were awarded the scrum. The scrum was won and Will Du Randt made a good run against the grain but was tackled and we took another phase into contact before quickly recycling and Joel Gaidan powered over from close range to score our fourth try and a bonus point (56-24). Sandbach scored the final points of the game on 79 minutes to win the match and take home the points (61-24).
This was a tough day for Park with playing more than half the game with 14 players but there were some positives with the scrums and lineouts working well and scoring 4 tries to get a bonus point.
Final score Sandbach 61 – 24 WPRFC
Team: Will Du Randt, Dan Davenport, Riewoldt Teabuge, Lewis Pickering, Joseph Rowland, Cameron Flanagan, Jack Williams, Dan Williams (Captain), Matthew Treacy, Robin Lowndes, Phil Lynch, Joseph Hickey, Ross Morrin, Eli Fakailoatonga, Joel Gaidan, Frankie Davenport, Harry Dodd and Lewis Owens
