Rugby: Waterhead 22 - 52 Mayfield

Mayfield moved to joint fourth in the Hatton's Conference Division One with a comfortable 22 – 52 win over Waterhead in Oldham on Saturday.

Despite the score, player coach Sam Butterworth described this as a ‘below par performance’ and was not happy with the side conceding 22 points.

He said: “Once again we played some very entertaining rugby but we appeared to lose concentration at crucial stages of the game and we didn’t stick to the game plan.

“That said we are not too disappointed, how can we be after clocking up 50 points again?”

A strong start saw Mayfield take an early lead with new signing Jack Malen and Paul Brearley organising a good defence and Matty Moores and Todd O’Brien continuing where they left off last week, going forward.

O’Brien was  the instigator as he found Mark Biggins who crashed through the defence for his side’s first try. Lewis Sheridan converted. 0 - 6.

Waterhead responded well taking the lead with two converted tries of their own. 12 -6.

The first half continued in the same vein with both sides swapping tries in a scrappy show.

Mayfield's tries came from full back Jack Sampson, Alex West and a cracking effort from Sean Hill after a 50m break from Lewis Sheridan.

Although the half time score was 16 – 26, Mayfield were by far the better side and with a little more concentration they would have been out of reach at this stage.

The second half went more to plan for the Rochdale side when, after only four minutes, Mitch Spackman forced his way upfield from where Paul Brearley found the space to put Rob Kershaw over the line. 16 – 30.

A succession of penalties conceded by both sides diminished the impact of any more structured play.

Mayfield got their act together and gained supremacy in the game as once again their impressive pack got the better of their opposite numbers.

A Matty Moores break paved the way for the supporting Brearley, who produced one of his now trademark backdoor passes for Luke Sampson to increase the lead. Sheridan converted. 16 – 36.

Dan Kaufman was next to break the line making 40 metres before being brought down. O’Brien found Brearley from acting half, who then delighted the crowd with a repeat of his earlier pass this time with Sheridan being the beneficiary. He also added the conversion. 16 – 42.

Waterhead then found a new enthusiasm as they pushed forward, pressuring the Mayfield line, only a magnificent cover tackle from Kristian Duffy prevented a score but a quick play the ball found the rest of the defence napping. 22 – 42.

Mayfield responded well running in two more tries, from Rob Kershaw and Jack Sampson making the final score 22 – 52.

There were some great performances from the Mayfield side with Jack Sampson, Brearley, Liam Whalley and Sheridan particularly impressive in the backs, while in the forwards O’Brien put in his usual shift driving his players on when they needed to go forward and steadying the ship when patience was required. Mark Biggins, Luke Sampson and Mitch Spackman were again involved in everything their side did while Matty Moores continued his impressive run of form to take the coaches MOM award.

Team: Jack Sampson, Sean Hill, Liam Whalley, Rob Kershaw, Kristian Duffy, Paul Brearley, Lewis Sheridan, Simon Moore, Todd O’Brien, Mark Biggins, Matty Moores, Luke Sampson, Jack Malen, Alex West, Mitch Spackman, Dan Kaufman, Sam Butterworth.