Mayfield Rugby League

15/12/07 National Cup : Myton Warriors 26 Mayfield 40

15/12/07 National Cup : Myton Warriors 26 Mayfield 40

By “Mad Mal The Mauler”

On this side of the Hill the Mayfield ‘B’ v Balderstone Warriors game had to be cancelled due to a hard frost making it unplayable, but on t’other side of the Hill fog initially gave way to low cloud which had the benefit of keeping the worst of the frost at bay! However the conditions both underfoot and at hand were far from ideal with biting cold making things a little more than difficult!

With Myton sporting their ‘South Sydney Rabbitoh’s’ colours of red and green they were determined to make Mayfield work for a result. After the usual initial probing from both sets of players it was Mayfield who, on 6 minutes, made the first breakthrough with Myton’s defence fumbling around on their own line and Jonathon Petty reacting the quickest to put the ball down 10 metres from the right touchline. Mike Kaufman took the kick which slid across the face of the posts to narrowly miss, 0 – 4.

For the next 10 minutes the Warriors lived up to their name and attacked the Mayfield line ferociously, but the Blue and White wall stood firm and repelled their repeated attacks. On 15 minutes Mayfield’s giant Josh Peacock made a great line break shaking off defenders as he went some 25 metres only to have the ball stripped from his grasp at the last second, but it had broken the sustained Myton attack. Janan Billings also made a break three minutes later only to lose the ball in the tackle!

Myton again applied the pressure for several minutes, but again were unable to penetrate Mayfield’s resolute defence and on 21 minutes declined to take an easy two points after a penalty award for offside and on the last play an attempted grubber was snapped up by Jon Muir who scampered 25 metres only to lose the ball through what must have been frozen fingers by this time?

The same mistake wasn’t made on 28 minutes when Myton were awarded another penalty for offside and took the sensible option to get on the board with No 4 Ashley James slotting it over 2 – 4

In reply on 29 minutes what appeared to be a perfectly good kick and chase with Pete Draper touching down under the posts was disallowed for a dubious offside call by the ref! Not to be deterred Mayfield now seemed to find their passing abilities and a sweet cross field move on 35 minutes from right to left ended with Mike Kaufman in at the left hand corner which he duly converted 2 -10

A mere three minutes later with Myton still reeling, a terrific phase of passing started on the left just in Mayfield’s half went from there over to the right touchline and back again to almost the left middle before being halted, but Janan Billings quickly swept up the ball from dummy half to jink in under the posts from 15 metres out Kaufman again converting 2 – 16.

With halftime looming Mayfield got a penalty 20 metres out, but weren’t interested in 2 points and went for the power play ending in another dispiriting score against the Warriors again converted by Mike Kaufman ending the half 2 – 22

Myton started the second half showing they weren’t finished when on 44 minutes Ashley James scampered over on the left touchline and, unchallenged cheekily ran to touch down under the sticks, then converted his own try 8 – 22

Mayfield’s short kick off didn’t come off when Myton knocked on, but recovered the ball from the ensuing Mayfield scrum which again led to another 10 minutes of sustained pressure on Mayfield’s line only to be relieved by a brilliant line break on 55 minutes from Janan Billings who ran from Mayfield’s 35 metre line to Myton’s 30 before unloading to Pete Draper who was supporting on his shoulder, and drawing the final defender, slipped the ball to Ste Gartland to score next to the post! Great stuff! Again Mike Kaufman struck it for another 2 points 8 – 28

Could you believe it with Billings hardly getting his breath back from the last run, he was given the ball in almost an identical position on 58 minutes and this time scooted round several flailing defenders to score a scintillating try of the match with his solo 60 metre dash! Mike again did the honours 8 – 34

To Myton’s credit they still plugged away although by now the game was all but over and were rewarded when a mix-up in Mayfield’s defence allowed Carl Booth to snaffle the ball and score a well deserved try, duly converted by Ashley James 14 – 34

Five minutes later with ‘Field’s foot off the gas Myton’s No 8 slipped unopposed through from 10 metres out to score under the ‘H’ giving James another easy conversion 20 – 34 On 75 minutes another slick passing move ended with Janan Billings putting Paul Rolls in to the right of the sticks and Mike Kaufman getting his last conversion of the day, only missing one out of seven attempts! 20 – 40

Even though the players and spectators were counting the seconds to full time and hopefully getting some heat in their frozen limbs, Myton’s No 9 did a classic quarterback sneak on 79 minutes to go under the posts leading to an easy conversion, final score 26 – 40

Although there wasn’t a Man-of-the Match awarded, Janan Billings had to win it by a country mile being involved in almost every scoring move! Mike Kaufman too was at his best and the rest of the lads did sterling work after an initial dodgy 10 minutes at the start!

With the extremely cold handling conditions both sides acquitted themselves well and credit must go to both teams for the manner the encounter was played with no cards of any colour brandished by the ref who by and large let the game flow.

Onwards and upwards Mayfield, who will we get in the next round? Let’s hope it’s a home draw?