Mayfield 23 - 6 Wath Brow

Battered and bloodied Dec Sheridan

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Mayfield finished off the league season proper with a solid performance in a bruising encounter with Wath Brow at the Mayfield Sports Centre on Wednesday evening. The Cambrians certainly came to win this game and held Mayfield scoreless for the first 38 minutes in front of their biggest crowd of the season.

There were chances for both sides early on with Paul Brearley putting Lewis Sheridan into space only for the classy fullback to be caught before the line.

Brow then bombed two tries with knock on’s at the final pass. Rob Kershaw must have thought he was going to score after Matt Calland put him through a gap but he too was caught by his opposite number.

Dave Wood did cross the line with 30 minutes on the clock after Calland collected a Sam Butterworth kick through and gave him a perfectly timed pass but the touch judge deemed the pass forward so the scorer remained untroubled.

With just two minutes of the first half remaining Todd O'Brien drove his forwards into the Wath Brow ten metres then dropped the returning Joe Quanuici off on the inside and he burst through for the opening score. Converted by Butterworth. 

Brow had several chances in the first half and it took some excellent defence from Nick Hargreaves, Eric Johnson, Mark Biggins Sean Mulcahy and Lewis Sheridan to keep the visitors at bay.

The second half started as fast and furious as the first had finished with both sides battling to claim the points.

Both teams showed some quality touches but Mayfield had the edge, being just a bit quicker off the mark and more resilient in defence.

With ten second half minutes gone a Paul Brearley kick was fumbled by the Brow centre and Quanuici was on the spot to pick up the loose ball and dive over to increase the lead. Butterworth converted.

Five minutes later Butterworth took the opportunity to land a drop goal.

Brow kept plugging away and were rewarded when the Mayfield defence failed to deal with a towering kick; the Brow substitute capitalised on the error to drag his team back into the game.

The efforts of last week’s Conference Cup Final, plus the long journey, started to take its toll on the visitors and they were going down like flies, and with the referee stopping the game for almost every injury, Mayfield's flow was interrupted.

Strong running from Nick Hargreaves, Mark Biggins and Sean Mulcahy urged on by Butterworth and Brearley got them back on track and Quanici effectively sealed the game completing his hatrick. Converted by Butterworth.

The try of the game came in the last minute when a brilliant Todd O'Brien break was backed up by Steven Campbell. Paul O'Brien threw a perfect pass to Campbell out wide on the wing and he finished in fine style.

Mayfield played some great rugby in this game but the most pleasing aspect for the coaches must have been the steel shown in defence. Brow were a big strong side and to restrict them to just the one try was superb achievement. This defensive improvement augers well for Mayfield with the play offs coming up next week.