Rugby league: West Hull 38 - 18 Mayfield

Photo: Aidy Gleeson Snr

Nick Hargreaves

With their strongest team by for a long time, coaches Sam Butterworth and Steve Wood, and Mayfield's travelling supporters were quietly confident about their team's trip to West Hull on Saturday 5 March. Especially after making the same journey last month and coming back with the win.

This time it all went wrong, the only time Mayfield looked like a good side was in the warm-up. Right from the whistle, they struggled to compete with the home side. West Hull looked sharp with the ball and structured in both attack and defence. All the things that Mayfield weren't.

The first 20 minutes of this game were all played in the Mayfield half. Most of it in the danger zone 20. The scrambling defence held West Hull out time and again but Mayfield always looked to be on the back foot. Si Moore, Nick Hargreaves and James McDaid tried hard to hold them out but once the first score came Mayfield crumbled, they failed to compete and showed no urgency. Within minutes the home side had run in three more unanswered tries, 20 - 0.

Mayfield rallied and Kyle Marvin grabbed their first score, converted by Zac Hartley, 20 - 6. That was Mayfield's last contribution to the half as West Hull added another score to make it 26 - 6 at half time.

Mayfield competed better in the second half but never really looked like pulling the game back. West Hull increased their lead, 30 - 6 before Mayfield made a real contribution as Hartley managed to cross the line off a great little inside ball from Dec Sheridan, Hartley converted, 30 - 12.

The game levelled out for the rest of the second half and both sides swapped tries, Mayfield's coming after a typically powerful run from Hargreaves saw him crash through the defence, Hartley added the two.

The final score was 38 - 18 which meant that the second half was actually drawn at 12 points each showing that Mayfield had improved considerably after a very poor first-half showing.

Hopefully, this will prove to be just an off day for the Rochdale side and next week will see them back on track. One thing for sure Butterworth and Wood will show them no mercy in training this week.