Mayfield Rugby League

02/09/2008 Mayfield 13 Leigh East 20

02/09/2008 Mayfield 13 Leigh East 20

Tonight’s visitors were Leigh East smarting from two opening losses and desperate to register their first points. The evergreen Lee Hansen who turned 40 last Sunday was again in their line-up stating “this is my last season”……Yeh, Lee, you’ve said that for at least the last five years? If and when he does hang up his boots it will be a big loss to RL.

It only took Leigh 1 minute to post their intent after an immediate penalty against Mayfield took them to the 10 metre line from the play the ball No 8 Simon Stevens whipped the ball out to 10 Craig Wingfield who found Lee Hansen and on to 7 Ryan Peters who’s grubber just went dead?

Mayfield worked the ball up field finishing with Grant Bithel going close with a chip over that was kicked over the dead ball line by fullback Ryan Fieldhouse.

On 5 minutes no6 Danny Kilshaw was penalised for laying on 20 metres out from the Leigh uprights. Todd O’Brien stepped up to take the kick which he would normally slot over blindfold, but inexplicably put it wide?
Barely a minute later Kilshaw collected the ball and broke through some sloppy tackling passing to Stevens and finishing with 5 Mark Kay going over 11 metres from the corner flag. Ryan Peters converted 0 – 6.

10 minutes with Leigh on the last tackle Andy Reid was adjudged to have stripped the ball from Stevens and Peters took the easy option of two points from in front of the post 0 -8

With an attempted 40/20 from Peters Ben Naumatua knocked the ball into touch giving Easts head and feed from which they hammered at the Mayfield line only for 9 Andy Murray to drop the ball over the line while trying to burrow under the desperate Mayfield defenders.

A couple of minutes later Mayfield managed to lose the against the head in a scrum, No3 Carl Mort picked up the ball and barged his way over, but again the ball was dropped with a try there for the taking!

20 minutes saw Steve Wood sin binned for kicking the ball away after a penalty was awarded to Leigh.
A penalty to Mayfield for offside took them to the Leigh 20 metre line, but yet another knock on at the play the ball stopped them in their tracks!

Grant Bithel was unlucky in the 26th minute when he intercepted a pass and would have been clear but for a superb ankle tackle bringing him to ground?

A long raking kick down field by Peters was taken by Rob Kershaw but the tj ruled he had a foot on the whitewash, nothing was going right for Mayfield!

In the 34th minute a Mayfield defender was penalised for stripping the ball on the last tackle once again in front of the sticks. Peters stepped up and casually put it wide? Another let off!

A minute later with Mayfield at the other end of the paddock Grant Bithel slipped past a couple of defenders and tackled 5 metres out attempted an offload that was juggled around by several players of both sides before ending up in Leigh hands.

Mayfield kept pressing and a huge up and under dropping almost on the crossbar was just taken in time by Fieldhouse to foil the chasing attackers.

Then on the stroke of half time with Mayfield banging at the defence Steve Gartland launched a long cut out pass to Jamie Knight to score in the corner. A terrific conversion from the touchline from Steve Gartland brought the half time score to 6 – 8.

5 minutes after the restart Carl Mort picked up the ball scattering 3 Mayfield defenders and appeared to bounce/drop the ball over the line? The tj on the far side also seemed to think the same by standing his ground until the referee went over to see what he’d seen, then returned to indicate a try? Bizarre stuff! This time 14 Adrian Dootson missed the two points 6 – 12.

From the restart a cross field kick was collected by Naumatua who passed on to Abraham who took it back to the half way line. Then another strange penalty for crossing gave Leigh the advantage once again?
57 minutes with the rain now sheeting down saw 13 Ryan Douglas with one of his trademark bustling breaks and as he was tackled hoisted a pass on to Gartland who went over 10 metres in for a fine try. Gartland also converted to level the scores at 12 – 12.

61 minutes John Petty blasted his way forward to the 10 metre line and from the play the ball Gartland popped over a drop goal to make it 13 – 12.

With the ref and tj’s ignoring several blatant infringements to the ire of the home supporters Leigh seemed to gain more confidence, but an injury on the last to Ryan Peters held up play for several minutes. Mayfield were then penalised 3 times in a row with the final penalty opting for a shot at goal which fittingly sailed wide!

The decisive moment in the game came on 74 minues with a powerful run by Mort from Leigh’s 35 metre line who then slipped a neat pass to the supporting Fieldhouse to race through to touch down to the side of the right upright. Danny Kilshaw made the extras for Leigh to lead 13 – 18.

From the short restart the ball rebounded off the feet of a Leigh player into the hands of Ben Naumatua then another curious penalty for crossing was given to give Leigh the ball back? Kilshaw slowed down things by opting for the two points to extend their lead to 13 – 20.

With only a couple of minutes to go Mayfield’s night was summed up when the short restart didn’t carry the 10 metres and Leigh didn’t have more than a couple of passes before the proceedings were brought to a halt with the rain belting down!

I think the way each and everyone in the Leigh dugout rushed to congratulate and shake the referee’s hand spoke volumes for his extremely poor (biased might be too strong an allegation?) performance, but he was from…….LEIGH?
To sum up there is work to be done and a settled squad to be constructed, but it is early days. The next game is at Wigan St Patricks where it is always difficult and with several key Mayfield players absent through work and holidays it will be even more so?

Mayfield’s M.o.t.M. was Eric Johnson
Leigh Easts M.o.t.M. was Carl Mort

Mayfield:
1 Komah Naumatua 2 Carl Abraham 3 Jamie Knight 4 Steve Wood 5 Rob Kershaw 6 Grant Bithel 7 Eric Johnson 8 Chris Brett 9 Todd O’Brien 10 Andy Reid 11 Ben Clare 12 Danny Chrimes 13 Ryan Douglas 14 Mark Biggins 15 Daniel Martin 16 Steve Gartland 17 John Petty

Leigh East
1 Ryan Fieldhouse 2 Craig Graham 3 Carl Mort 4 Leon Brennan 5 Mark Kay 6 Danny Kilsahw 7 Ryan Peters 8 Simon Stevens 9 Anthony Murray 10 Craig Wingfield 11 Seimisa Cocker 12 Lee Wingfield 13 Gareth Pemberton 14 Adrian Dootson 15 Mark Starkie 16 John Walker 17 Lee Hansen