Third time lucky for road warriors
NATIONAL LEAGUE ONE TYNEDALE ................... 20 MACCLESFIELD .......... 22
MACCLESFIELD travelled to the North East of the country for the third and final time of the season to play second-bottom Tynedale and they returned home with their second win of the season.
A hard-fought and somewhat scrappy game was decided by the boot of Tom Morton, who kicked a penalty late on to snatch the victory for the travelling Blues.
The young fly-half marked his selection for the Under-20 Six Nations championship by holding his nerve to slot the three points and seal victory.
It had taken 15 minutes for the first score of the game, which went to the hosts against the run of play.
The Blues had control of possession deep in Tynedale territory but a loose ball was hacked up the pitch by their winger and he pounced to open the scoring.
Another 15 minutes passed before the next score and unfortunately for the Blues it again went to the hosts, this time a well-deserved score built on strong set-piece play at the lineout. The backs then moved the ball wide to secure their second score, but it was uncoverted, leaving Macclesfield 12 points behind.
The Blues managed to get a try of their own five minutes before the break.
After a long period of pressure on the line, second rower David Marwick picked from the back of a ruck and crashed over for a 12-7 scoreline at the half-time break.
But the Blues allowed Tynedale to restore their lead with the final play of the half, missed tackles allowing them to breeze in and make it 17-7.
Macc got off to a blistering start in the second half, as winger and leading try scorer Matt King crossed in the corner for his 12th of the season after more strong phase play.
A penalty on the hour put Tynedale 20-12 ahead as the game went through a particularly scrappy period, with both sides coughing up possession.
Yet, with the error,s came a lot of scrummaging and a dominant Macclesfield pack meant the hosts looked to be tiring the quicker of the two sides.
In the 74th minute, King scored his second of the game. After kicking the ball in behind the defence, he tasked himself with a foot race against his opposite winger.
King managed to beat him to the ball by a fingertip to get the score, Morton’s conversion meaning the Blues trailed by one point with a little more than five minutes to play.
After some nervous periods of possession, Tynedale coughed up a penalty 35 metres out, from where Morton stepped up and split the posts to make it 22-20 with no time for the hosts to respond.