Mayfield 6 –31 Myton

A crowd of around three hundred people turned out for to see Mayfield’s most important game of the season on Saturday (7 May). Without doubt the best team on the day won; unfortunately the best team on the day was the opposition, Myton.

The home side got of to a terrible start as the full back fumbled a bouncing ball after only three minutes, the chasing Myton centre reacted quickly and scooped up the ball to score a converted try.

Not long after a speculative high bomb wasn’t dealt with by the Mayfield winger and again Myton’s reactions were quicker and their winger pounced for a score in the corner.

The home side were visibly shaken and attempted to fight back but the Myton defence was rock solid and some slack defending was punished as the visitors’ winger found space out wide for another unconverted try.

With only about 15 minutes on the clock things looked bleak but Mayfield rallied with Maroney and Atkinson putting in some telling shots and O’Brien busying himself behind the ruck.

Simpson began making in roads up the middle as did Moores and it was from one of these attacks that Butterworth took the ball from a quick play to score a trade mark individual try which O’Brien converted.

Myton sensed the danger and the stand off slotted over a drop goal to complete the first half scoring. Right from the restart it was obvious that who ever scored the next try would win the game and Myton to their credit appeared better equipped on the day to do this.

Mayfield continued to apply pressure to the Myton line but again the defence proved impenetrable. They then ran in two more tries to kill off any hopes of a fight back and with it Mayfield’s hopes of promotion. The final score was 6 –31.

Man of the match for the home side was split between Matty Moores and Maroney who were ably backed by O’Brien and Atkinson. Also worthy of a mention was Simon Moore who topped the tackle count for both sides.

At the end of the day Mayfield knew they had been beaten by a better team and although gutted at missing out on promotion, agreed fourth place in the league is a creditable finish in a tough division.

The lads will now enjoy a well earned rest before regrouping for another assault on division one next season, which will be the last winter season before the switch to summer rugby in March 2012.

Team:. Rob Kershaw Kristian Duffy, Steve Wood, Ian Sampson, Ben Namulatua, Sam Butterworth, Matt Gartland, Ben Coombes, Todd O’Brien, Aiden Gleeson, Andrew Maroney, Matty Moores, Lee Atkinson, Ben Simpson, Chris Brett, John Stott, Simon Moore.

A spokesperson for the club said: “All involved at Mayfield would like to take this opportunity to thank the record number of sponsors who have come forward this season and put up their hard earned cash. The assistance given by these sponsors, all local businesses, means that Mayfield can carry on their push for improvement both on the field and off it with the improvements in training facilities etc. its not just the first team who benefit but everyone from the under 8’s up. So once more thank you to everyone.”