Macclesfield 55 Waterloo 14
Albeit an untidy at times encounter Macclesfield did enough to score seven tries in this defeat of once mighty Waterloo to keep them ahead of the pack in Two North and with other games at the top not going exactly to plan it means that Macc, Caldy and the Students are putting a little daylight between the chasing pack.
Waterloo kicked off with a slight breeze to their backs and the early exchanges were even although a Macclesfield clearance charged down could have rewarded the visitors but Josh Fowles was on hand to clear the danger.
Ross Winney opened the scoring with a penalty following an offside infringement but Waterloo registered the first try of the afternoon when Centre – James O’Brien – touched down following a neat chip through the defence. Laim McGovern converted to give the visitors a brief lead.
A second Winney penalty was followed by Macclesfield’s first try when winger – Matt Simpson – crossed the line after Full Back – Matt O’Regan – had been assisted from the park with an ankle injury to be replaced by Tom Eaton. The Winney conversion gave the Blues a lead they were not to surrender.
Waterloo’s discipline let them down when first No. 8 Njike Tehakoute and shortly after scorer O’Brien were binned for a technical offence & dissent respectively and whilst Waterloo were a man short the Blues scored two more tries – both thanks to livewire Scrum Half Chris Townsend – and both of which were converted by Winney to give Macclesfield a commanding 27-7 interval advantage.
Early Waterloo pressure at the start of the second period came to nothing and it was Macclesfield who increased the lead when Winger Fowles outpaced the Waterloo defence to the line for Winney to add the two. Waterloo struck back with the second try from James O’Brien duly converted by McGovern to give them a sniff of a chance with still twenty minutes left but as they tired it was Macclesfield who finished the stronger with further tries coming from Chris Jones – after he wrong footed the defence on a forty metre sprint and then Fowles crossed for his second both of which were converted by Winney - who scarce put a foot wrong all afternoon with a faultless display of dead ball kicking.
The game closed with possibly the try of the season so far when, after a superb running move involving seven pairs of hands over some fifty metres which ended when Tony Howcroft touched down in the corner and Winney put the icing on the cake with a touchline conversion to make it nine kicks out of nine.
Brendan Thomas – Rugby Operations Manager – said, “Whilst we are always happy with a win and bonus point after the game the squad still questioned themselves in the dressing room over the things that went wrong and this is healthy for the future as we are all looking to improve”
Team: O’Regan, Simpson, Hughes, Howcroft, Fowles, Winney, Townsend.
Mantell, Moss, Kent, Marsh, Lear, Jones, Baines & Keep.
Replacements: Devine, Taylor, Keane, Sayce & Eaton
