MATCH REPORT -  7th October 2006 Sale v Vagabonds  23 - 18  

A much improved Vagas just lose out at Sale

Every so often one witnesses a performance which makes you remember why you are still so involved with your club after quite some time after you have hung your boots up, and Skanco Vagabond’s display of rugby at Sale F.C.’s impressive Heywood Road ground on Saturday was one such day.

Vagas seemed to relish the challenge of playing on the big, wide pitch as they took the play to the home side from the kick off.

With skipper Kevin Riley leading by example, they pounded the opposition’s try line for the first ten to fifteen minutes of the match. Unfortunately, the only score resulting from this was a Jonny Beckley penalty. Then with their first attack of the match, Sale took their own line-out ball and drove over the Vagas line for a try, which was converted.

Undeterred though, Vagas went straight back on the attack and after Rob Pease narrowly failed to score out wide on the right,  a series of scrums on the left hand side of the pitch resulted in Riley picking up from the base and putting scrum half, Midgey van Vuuren  in the clear to score a try which Beckley converted.

A penalty by Sale and then a great try by Ewald Kilian after Andre Pretorias and Rob Pease  put him in the clear took the score to 10 – 15 to Vagas, which was extended by another Beckley penalty to 18 -10 at which point the home side looked shell shocked.

Although Vagabonds remained firmly on top of the game, sometimes the rub of the green does not go your way and another rare appearance in Vagas’ twenty two saw Sale again take their own line-out and eventually drive over the try line in the very last minute of the first half. This was again converted, and the half time whistle blew to leave Vagas just one point clear after all their hard work.

The second half saw Vagas again playing some outstanding rugby and they were again camped in the opposition’s twenty two for long periods of time, but failed to convert this pressure into points .

During the last ten minutes, Sale were awarded two long range penalties and both were excellently converted to give them a win which even their most staunch supporters were admitting afterwards, was rather undeserved.

Vagabonds, however, should go away from this game knowing that they have taken a huge stride forward  in a season which started slowly but gained momentum with a good win last week, and their best performance I can remember for two or three seasons, this week.