Sale 32 Lymm 10

LYMM crashed out of the Cheshire Cup at the last-four stage on Thursday as hosts Sale reached the final for the second successive season.

It was young 22-man Lymm squad that that visited Sale, but they were unable to turn their chances into points.

Lymm will have a chance at some redemption when the side sitting second in National Three League North visit Heywood Road in the league in January.

Liam McGovern gave Sale an early lead with a penalty but Lymm responded with a strong run from Cormac Nolan but he lost possession in the tackle and Sale kicked downfield to clear the danger.

Lymm had the edge in the scrums and held their own in lineouts but lacked the patience of the hosts in building up attacking phases with good ball retention.

This eventually resulted in the home side scoring their first try.

Lymm responded well and put together some excellent attacking moves and a promising run by Giles Dugdale into Sale territory was only stopped just short of the line.

The visitors eventually got points on the board when another promising attack on the home 22 was stopped by a deliberate knock-on, and Nolan kicked the penalty to reduce the hosts’ advantage.

Knowles and Nolan always looked dangerous but Lymm started to give away penalties and Sale restored a 10-point lead.

Following another good attack down the right, Lymm were rewarded with a lineout close to the home five metre line.

A good catch and set looked promising as they moved forward, only to be penalised for a player joining the maul in front of the ball carrier.

Lymm broke from their own half down the right but were eventually turned over. A poor Lymm defensive lineout was capitalised on by Sale and resulted in their second try.

Two minutes before half time Sale added another try, when from a scrum on the Lymm 10 metre line Adam Aigbokhae broke through to give the hosts a strong half-time lead.

With about 20 minutes left on the clock Sale secured their place in the final. McGovern broke the deadlock with a fine break and support from Davenport put Chris Mayor over for a try, McGovern adding the conversion.

Five minutes later Lymm’s George Boaden touched down and Nolan added the conversion but multiple substitutions by both sides together with deteriorating weather conditions restricted further scoring in the match.

Lymm host a Colts reunion game on Saturday, before returning to league action at home to Westoe on Saturday, January 3.

Lymm: Auden, Horton, Widdrington, Darbyshire, Williams, Ashall, Williams, Bray, Baker, Knowles, Ecclestone, Dugdale, Boaden, Halford, Nolan. Subs: McGuiness, Ashton, Rasheed, Boaden, Gough, Halford, Jones.