Eccles 28 – 28 Mayfield

In a gale force wind Mayfield struggled to find their feet. There were some early signs of what the Rochdale side are capable of but they paid the price for an inability to finish.

Eccles took advantage of this and ran in two tries both of which were down to poor defence, though both conversions were missed. A third try looked on the cards after the Eccles scrum half chipped through only for John Foy to spot the danger, he collected the ball on his own line and showed he’s lost none of his pace as he sprinted the full length of the pitch for an Aiden Gleeson converted try.

Taurean Sheehan and Paul Brearley were trying to bring their team mates in to the game. Jack Sampson created chances only to see the ball go astray at the final pass.

Eccles grabbed two more tries before half time making the score 18 – 6.

In the second half a Carl Abraham interception converted by Ieaun Higgs lifted Mayfield and the travelling fans, and when good play from Todd O’Brien saw Ben Butterworth put Ieuan Higgs in for a try it looked like Mayfield were going to take control of the game.

Si Moore and Aidy Gleeson began punching holes in the Eccles defence while Jack Ashworth was unlucky on a couple of occasions not to get over the line.

A break against the run of play saw Eccles get to the Mayfield line where their big centre powered over from acting half for another unconverted try.

The prompting of Ashworth and Brearley paid dividends when a Simpson burst saw him hand the ball to Ben Butterworth who used his experience as he picked out the smallest man on the field to run at, he handed him off and touched down to give Higgs an easy conversion.

As both teams tired mistakes crept in and it was from one of these mistakes that Eccles reclaimed the lead, they worked their way to the line and grabbed a converted try to make it 28 – 22 with only five minutes to play.

From the restart Mayfield forced an error and camped on the opposition line but the Eccles defence held firm, until O’Brien popped an inside ball to the rampaging Gleeson who went over under the posts for a try which he converted himself to make the final score 28 - 28.

A draw was probably fair result on the day for two teams who put in a lot of effort but neither side really took command of the game.

Mayfield showed in patches that they have what it takes but lapses in concentration both in attack and defence let their opposition off the hook. Once they have ironed out these problems they will undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with in this division.

Team: Jack Sampson, John Foy, Carl Abraham, Ben Butterworth, Rob Kershaw, Paul Brearley, Taurean Sheehan, Ben Simpson, Todd O’Brien, Aiden Gleeson, Gaz Sharrocks, Ian Sampson, Si Moore, Gareth Ellison, Jack Ashworth, Ieuan Higgs, Lee Bradley.