Rugby league: Mayfield 14 - 26 West Hull

Champions West Hull had the upper hand in this game from the off. They started very strongly on Saturday 5 August, looking confident and self-assured from the first whistle. Great scrambling defence from Dec Sheridan, Sam Wright and James McDaid was all that prevented them from scoring as their influential full-back, Jones, tried to bob and weave his way through.

Mayfield were unlucky not to open the scoring as Kristian McVeigh lost his footing just short of the line. The West forwards were imposing themselves on the game and the powerful second rower, Arbon busted his way through several ineffective tackles to score under the sticks, 0 - 6.

Mayfield hit back and were again unlucky as they lost the ball on the last. Quick play from the West's halves caught Mayfield out and they extended their lead with another converted try, 0 - 12. 

With 20 minutes on the clock, Mayfield finally got on the scoreboard after a high-spiralling bomb from Devlin Long caused all sorts of problems in the West's defence and triggered a great response from his team mates and Kristian McVeigh got on the end of a good move and finished dramatically in the corner, 4 - 12.

The Mayfield revival didn't last long though and poor defence allowed the visitors plenty of space and Mayfield just couldn't keep up as they raced in for a try out wide which was converted superbly, 4 - 18. 

Mayfield had to work hard to get back into this game and work hard is what they did. Nick Hargreaves, Wright, Luke Fowden and Joe Taira took the game to West Hull and this hard work paid off just before the half time whistle after a cross field kick from Harry Sheridan was batted about like a tennis ball before ending up in the safe hands of Wayne English who dived over to narrow the gap with a great opportunist try, 8 - 18. 

 

 

The second half was a much tighter affair with both sets of players giving everything they had in search of victory. Wests sensed that Mayfield were not going to give up without a fight and decided to take the two when they were awarded a penalty in a good attacking position, 8 - 20.

With both sides flying into the tackle there was always going to be penalties awarded, Wests got another and again opted for the two to leave Mayfield needing three scores to win, 8 - 22.

The defence was now brutal from both sides and both sides deserve a lot of credit for the way they played the game. Defence was definitely on top and it took until ten minutes from the end before Mayfield strung together a great length of field move which saw Jack McConnachie score a fantastic try, converted by Jordan Parr, 14 - 22.

Another quick score would have changed the game completely but frustration began to show and Long ended up being shown the yellow card and ten minutes in the bin. This broke Mayfield's concentration and Wests sealed the game with a scrappy try in the corner with just a couple of minutes remaining, 14 - 26.

Game over and with it Mayfield's chances of finishing in the top spot. Overall this wasn't a bad Mayfield performance but a very good one from West Hull. There were some bright spots for Butterworth's boys but they needed to keep the intensity in the game for the full 80 minutes.