Rugby League: West Hull 18 - 14 Mayfield

Photo: Aidy Gleeson Snr

Callum Marriott hoping to make an impact on Friday

Mayfield put in a lacklustre performance in Hull on Saturday as they were defeated by West Hull.

West Hull set their stall out from the kick off as winger Lee Registe was forced into touch in the first set as the Hull players piled into some fairly robust defence.

They took possession from the scrum and pummelled the Mayfield line it took a strong defensive response from Mayfield to hold them out.

Mayfield forwards Seta Tala and Callum Marriott forced their way out of their own half and give the wiley Chris Hough space to engineer a gap for Lee Registe to exploit and give Mayfield the lead. Hough failed with the conversion.

Wests came straight back at Mayfield, but again the defence held firm.

Repeat penalties and unforced Mayfield errors gave Wests long spells of possession.

Quick play the balls caught Mayfield cold and only a brilliant tackle over the line prevented the score.

Quick play again saw Wests ship the ball from right to left and the winger found space out wide to squeeze in and level the scores.

For the next twenty minutes Mayfield hardly got out of their own half; repeat sets and mistakes allowed Wests to take the lead as the other winger dived over.

With a couple of minutes of the first half remaining Mayfield found themselves in the Hull twenty and this had a galvanising effect on the team as they piled the pressure on. They played some good rugby with Chris Hough dictating play and forwards Paul Brearley Callum Marriott and Seta Tala just falling short.

The half time whistle couldn’t come soon enough for Wests but it disrupted Mayfield's momentum completely.

The restart saw Wests looking very dangerous.

Brearley brilliantly intercepted a long pass in his own half and was uncatchable as he sped over for a Zac Hartley converted try regaining the lead for Mayfield.

A linesman adjudged the Wests winger had touched down in the corner, a fact that was hotly disputed by the Mayfield crowd in that corner who claimed Registe had made a great tackle and the ball had been grounded on him. The referee didn’t agree and gave the try.

This again disrupted the Mayfield pattern and the mistakes crept back in. Within five minutes a speculative high bomb was dropped and Wests pounced on the loose ball to forge further in front.

A penalty for a swinging arm meant that at 18 – 10 Mayfield would have to score twice to get anything from the game, and with a defence as strong as the West Hull one this was always unlikely.

With six minutes remaining a Brearley chip through was followed by the ever-improving Kieran Harmer and he managed to cut the deficit with a well taken score.

This was the last time the scorer was troubled and Wests took the two points leaving Mayfield kicking themselves knowing that if they had played to anything like their potential they could have took the victory here. As it was they were they were bettered in most departments by a solid but somewhat ordinary Hull side.