Get out of Jail card proves useful again!
FOR the third week running Macclesfield had to play their get-out-of-jail-card. They trailed by 17 points at Wirral on 64 minutes but fought back with tries from: Dan Percival, Will Davies and James Oliver; Oliver making three hand-offs in his run to the line.
Head Coach Andy Appleyard said that Wirral were a big pack of experienced forwards with a plan to slow the ball down: “We fell for it …but we regrouped in the second half and played the way Macc want to play.” Wirral could have snatched it with a penalty attempt from the halfway line, but thankfully, Macc still had another get-out-ofjail-card, the final score 17-19.
Next week’s opponents Billingham will be a crucial match for Macclesfield. If we are to make a serious challenge this season we will need to take points off the other top-teams. The top of the table reads: Billingham played 10, points 47; Blaydon played 10, points 42; Macclesfield played 10, points 40 and
Harrogate played 8, points 34.
Come and give us your loud support and help keep Priory Park a fortress next Saturday.
There was only one game at Priory Park last Saturday, Macclesfield Ladies taking on Moore
Ladies.
It was great seeing the girls get stuck-in, in spite of the very wet and muddy playing conditions, showing great enthusiasm. See the photo of them in their brand new kit; a separate match report appears elsewhere.
The seconds went over to Sedgley Park and unfortunately lost out to a strong Tigers side. We had excellent 2nd team debuts by the Heginbotham brothers Ben at 10 and Joe at 12, both tackled tenaciously and dovetailed together with the other backs in attack; Lewis Peirce and Brad Atherton also had excellent performances.
Pete Langley the manager/coach was very pleased with his side’s display but disappointed to slip into the lower half of the table, thus at present we’re not in the play-off positions. They play Blackburn at home next Saturday.
Simon Grant’s third team had no fixture; they travel to Broughton Park next week.
The fourth team had an interesting afternoon; they played two halves of rugby, one against Sandbach 3rds and the other against Trentham Veterans. They drew the first and comfortably won the second. See a separate match report for an explanation of the circumstances.
Up in the higher reaches of the professional game, Saracens have been charged with breaching the salary cap and deducted 35 points with a huge fine.
Whilst they are making an appeal, the charges cover three consecutive seasons, so they are unlikely to have much of a case.
Thankfully Macclesfield are unlikely to face such a dilemma, our Players Charter symbolises our combined honest approach to rugby.