ANOTHER heavy defeat at Sandal was just what the doctor didn’t order.

Faced by former Dalesmen in Steves Graham and Nolson and off the back of two successive defeats, a confidence-building victory was important.

With Aaron Magee and Dion Hendricks preferred on the wings and Chris Gemmell back at inside centre after injury, the most surprising choice was JH Johnson at No 8.

A further late change was needed, however, after Nathan Smith suffered a badly-cut eye in training the previous Thursday, with Will Davies having to play lock and Gus Ramsey starting at flanker.

Ilkley started brightly enough, taking the lead with a Joe Rowntree penalty but Sandal spent long periods in Ilkley territory, squandering several good chances by taking the wrong decision or coughing up the ball in the face of stern defence.

Sandal went ahead when, with a penalty coming, they went in at the corner through winger James Ellar.

Ilkley’s attacking prowess then found Sandal’s defence wanting as the Ben Magee-Pat Power axis saw the latter go in under the posts to make it 10-5 but the lead was reduced when, from the restart, a penalty was conceded, leaving Sandal only 10-8 behind.

The game then rather fell into midfield exchanges, with mistakes from both sides and an outbreak of penalties – many quite inexplicable – spoiling the spectacle.

Superb defence from Ben Magee allowed Ilkley to clear, only to cough up the resulting possession and allow Kiwi Keiran Moffat a sight of the line.

He was tripped as Aaron Magee was wrong-footed and fell awkwardly, catching the centre with his feet a few metres from the line. The unfortunate Magee saw red and a penalty was awarded.

The view from the terraces was that it was accidental, and a penalty try and a yellow card would have been the better decision, but referee Peter Stentiford was on the other side of the pitch and ruled on what he saw.

Somehow a try was averted but Ilkley had to face an hour with 14 men, Greg Wood slotting a penalty to give the home side an 11-10 lead at half-time. Sandal started the second period strongly and fashioned a converted try for Nolson after what looked distinctly like a knock-on was allowed to pass unpunished.

Rowntree pulled it back to 18-13 with a penalty but the Dalesmen were on the back foot chasing points and often coughed up their own ball.

A lost line-out ball was hacked down the wing but Ben Magee and his backs colleagues saw a half-chance to run out of trouble.

But they were stopped, Sandal had a scrum and fashioned a forward pass when it was easier to have scored. However, the Ilkley scrum went into reverse and Stentiford signalled penalty try, which was converted for 25-13.

That was it as a contest, despite Rowntree and his men doing their all and Sandal losing two players to yellow cards.

Sandal then put the match to bed with a try from an even-more blatant knock-on and ran in three more tries to rack up a bonus-point victory.

For the record, Sandal’s scorers were previous tormentor Simon Frewin, Moffat and Ellar and, to rub salt into already sore wounds, a final one for Graham.

Ilkley face another side in maroon on Saturday at Wirral.

Ilkley’s second XV went down 36-19 at Hull Ionians in the Yorkshire Premiership, but of greater concern was the cancellation of Ilkley’s third XV game with Otley.

It left the club with no home game and 18 men without rugby for the second week running, which is a reflection of our changing world.