Rugby League: Mayfield 30 – 12 West Hull

Man of the match Declan Sheridan: Mayfield 30 – 12 West Hull

Torrential rain hit Mayfield Rugby Club, and Rochdale, at weekend but Mayfield made light of the weather and terrible conditions to score thirty points against one of their closest opponents for a top four finish in the league.

West Hull brought a depleted team over the Pennines and with Mayfield still seemingly suffering from the horrors of last weekend’s showing, added to the awful handling conditions, the game had a poor start as both teams made a number of unforced errors.

West Hull were first to take advantage and scored a converted try to take the lead.

This sparked Mayfield into life and with Declan Sheridan introduced to the play, they started to make inroads.

Prop forwards Jimmy Connaughton, Luke Fowden and Aiden Gleeson drove upfield and Sheridan darted through a gap but was stopped just short. Not to be deterred, he dummied left and right on the line and Callumn Marriott broke through for a try. Converted by Zak Hartley to level the score.

Aided Gleeson repeated the feat off solid forward play and quick actions from Sheridan. Hartley converted.

Mayfield had got to grips with the game as Jack Francis and Nick Hargreaves added to the forward strike power.

Callum Marriott was in imperious form on attack and defence, and he scored his first try as Mayfield ripped upfield through quick play the balls then kicked deep and Liam Whalley chased hard to trap Hull in the corner. Whalley followed up with a massive tackle to dislodge the ball and drew a high tackle penalty as he drove the loose ball to the line. From the penalty, Sheridan again took advantage and found Marriott with a short pass. Hartley converted.

West Hull refused to give up and with half time looming they forced two drop-outs and earned a penalty to pressure the Mayfield try line, benefitting from poor communication onMayfield’s right of defence to take a converted try.

Half time: Mayfield 18 – 12 West Hull

Mayfield had shown glimpses of strong play but needed to show more against a spirited West Hull side and they did just that in the first five minutes of the second half with a deep kick that pinned the visitors back on their own line.

Strong defence forced good field position for Mayfield and on the last tackle Hartley found Marriott, with a short pass and he did the rest, crashing through the defence to complete his hat rick of tries. Again converted by Hartley.

The weather turned for the worse and the game remained scoreless for 15 minutes despite Mayfield being on top.

Jack Francis worked hard chasing a kick to the in-goal but was denied a try as the officials, mistakenly, thought he slid over the dead ball line.

The injustice spurred the prop forward on and on the next set he powered through the defence 40 metres out, scattering defenders, and showed pace to round the full back for a great try. Converted by Hartley.

In the last 20 minutes Mayfield pressed hard without reward when first James McDaid was denied a try as he just stepped in touch whilst speeding down the right flank and then Sheridan, Watkins and Hargreaves were held just short of the try line.

The game seemed to have a fitting finale as great hands right to left drew defenders and found space for Lewis Butterworth to fly in on the left corner, but the effort was denied for a forward pass and the game finished 30-12.

This was the final regular season game in the league and the win left Mayfield solid in third place in the league, three points above Wath Brow who have to win their last two games to overhaul them. Either way a home play-off beckons for the Rochdale team, to be played on 30 September.

Mayfield Team: Wayne English, Lewis Butterworth, Matty Ashton, Liam Whalley, James McDaid. Chris Hough, Zak Hartley. Luke Fowden, Callum Ogden, Jimmy Connaughton, Sean Watkins, Callum Marriott, Zac Baker, Nick Hargreaves, Declan Sheridan, Aiden Gleeson, Jack Francis.

Official man-of-the-match: Declan Sheridan.