Mayfield Rugby League

05/1/2008 Mayfield B 64 Halifax Irish A 6(Pennine supplementary cup)

05/1/2008 Mayfield B 64 Halifax Irish A 6(Pennine supplementary cup)

by “Curly”

Mayfield B started out as underdogs for the first time on Saturday as they played hosts to Halifax Irish who are two divisions above them. It was a good opportunity to see how the youngsters had progressed in this, their first season.

If this game was anything to go by their progress has been startling as they destroyed the opposition 64 points to 6. The crowd who braved the cold and resisted the pull of Mayfield v East Hull on the main pitch were treated to some fantastic rugby league by the home side. A wise man once said “it’s the forwards who win the game. The backs just determine the score”.

This was definitely the case in this game with the big robust Mayfield pack demolishing their opposite numbers right from the first whistle. Cockayne,Reed and Nuttal were constant thorns in Halifax’ side with their powerful running and offloading of the ball while Banner`s tackling again had to be seen to be believed.

In the backs the centre pairing of Chrimes and Gregory worked very effectively with Chrimes putting in some awesome hits and Gregory taking the ball up at every opportunity. Hancock continued his improvement at no9 and scored a typical hooker`s try. Winger Ratu also showed he has what it takes as he too bagged a try to cap another good performance while Snape at fullback scored 2 brilliant individual tries showing that he is knocking, no hammering on the first team door.

The visitors never gave up and all credit to them scored late in the game but this only seemed to make the home side more resolute and they ran in two more tries in reply. Scorers for Mayfield were Reed 2,Gregory 2,Snape 2,Ratu, Chrimes, Nuttall, Howe, Pirouzan, and Hancock with Reed and Howard sharing eight goals between them. Although he never got on the score sheet it must be said that Kershaw was worth his weight in gold and certainly looks to have a future in the game, as long that is, as B team supreme Simon Howe nurtures this precocious talent along the lines of the Ferguson/Rooney partnership.