Rugby: Dewsbury Celtic 23 - 33 Mayfield

With six regular players unavailable due to holiday commitments, Mayfield travelled to Dewsbury with a new look side on Saturday.

Despite the enforced changes the coaches and players were still brimming with confidence as they made the trip over the Pennines.

In blistering hot conditions the game started at a tremendous pace with both sides playing some attractive attacking rugby.

Dewsbury took first blood as the scrum half spotted a gap in the defence and stepped his way over for a converted try.

Things could have got worse for Mayfield as the home side pressed the advantage and staged attack after attack on the Mayfield line, only a superb try saving tackle from debutant Sean Hill on the rampaging second row forward prevented the score. Hill also managed to dislodge the ball giving his side possession.

The Mayfield forwards, lead superbly by Todd O’Brien, fought their way upfield with Matty Moores and Luke Sampson making the hard yards.

On the Dewsbury ten, O’Brien fed Sam Butterworth when up popped Sean Hill on his left shoulder to take the pass and beat the man to score a great try and crown a very impressive debut.

The game was end-to-end for the next 15 minutes with both sides looking for an opening but each set of players defended superbly.

Moores was awesome stepping up for work at every opportunity and with Sampson and Joe Qanuici supporting this was a great game to watch.

Sam Butterworth and Paul Brearley linked well together and were behind everything their side did, and with O’Brien driving his forwards on it just looked a matter of time before Mayfield scored again.

As always though with rugby league the game can turn on the slightest mistake and that’s what happened as Mayfield failed to gather a high bomb and the Dewsbury winger pounced to restore his sides lead.

This was the spur Mayfield needed they seemed to click into another gear again with Moores and Lee Atkinson were making inroads every time they got the ball.

Brearley was getting the best from the players around him with the wingers Hill and Kristian Duffy coming in taking the load of the forwards in the heat.

Atkinson and Taurean Sheehan drove forward giving Butterworth good position from where he dropped Qanuici back on the inside at pace, and nobody is stopping the big Fijian when he is running like that, he crashed over by the posts for a try which Butterworth converted.

With three minutes to half time, the home defence seemed to take an early break as Butterworth went forward, kicked the ball and took the return as it ricocheted of a defender. He made twenty metres before finding Matt Calland in support he strolled in for the score again converted by Butterworth.

Dewsbury started the second half poorly giving away four penalties within five minutes putting an enormous strain on the defence, especially in the hot conditions and this showed as they failed to stop Moores as he continued his rampage. O’Brien then made further ground and found Qanuici, who was again unstoppable as he increased the lead. Butterworth converted.

The standard of rugby on show was a credit to both sides as they continued to play at a fantastic pace, with both sets of defence making crunching tackles on their opposite numbers.

The score stayed as it was for the next twenty minutes as the game again went end-to-end.

What could have been Mayfield’s undoing happened as the Dewsbury centre wrong-footed Calland, who raised his arm to make the tackle and caught him high which the referee saw worthy of a yellow card. He also gave the same punishment to Nualamatua who ran into the ensuing fracas.

With 17 minutes to go and down to 11 men, this should have been it for Mayfield. The only way to describe the next ten minutes is magnificent, the effort the players put in was absolutely outstanding, none more so than Luke Sampson who ended up in the centre in the reshuffle.

He epitomised what a rugby league player is all about, running himself into the ground for his team.

Mayfield managed to keep the now fired up Dewsbury side out and they even managed to score a try as Butterworth capitalised on good work from Adam Dybdall and O’Brien.

They were unlucky not to score again as Duffy was held up over the line.

Dewsbury looked down and out as the two binned players returned and it didn’t take long for Calland to make his presence felt as he found the space to put Butterworth in the clear to make the score 10 – 32.

The travelling Mayfield fans were revelling in the show the team was providing for them.

The ten minute spell with eleven players then seemed to take its toll as players missed tackles and gaps appeared in the defence, Dewsbury sensed this and came back all guns blazing scoring three tries in the final seven minutes with just an Aidan Gleeson drop goal in Mayfield’s favour.

The whistle finally went with the score at 23 – 33 and Mayfield celebrated another away victory.

This was a fantastic all round team performance with the forwards again being immense Moores, Qanuici, Sampson and O’Brien deserved medals for the way they performed while Butterworth and Brearley were involved in everything Mayfield did.

The coaches were particularly impressed with Sean Hill, who was thrown in at the deep end at short notice. He never made a mistake and went forward every chance he got.

Its now roll on next week for Mayfield and the eagerly awaited Hunslet re-match. 

Team: Komai Nualamatua, Sean Hill, Rob Kershaw, Matt Calland, Kristian Duffy, Paul Brearley, Sam Butterworth, Matty Moores, Todd O’Brien, Joe Qanuici, Luke Sampson, Lee Atkinson, Taurean Sheehan, Aidan Gleeson, Adam Dybdall, Ben Duffy