Whilst there was ultimately no denying that Miners deserved their victory they were given a big fright by a Mayfield side enjoying an understated season in the First Division. Indeed this game had eerie overtones of last season’s cup final as Miners opened up a substantial lead but were then pegged back to within one score before finally releasing the tension in the final minute. Their reward is a home tie against Shaw Cross Sharks in the quarter finals.

The home side were without Andrew Groves and Luke Murfin, Gareth Pain coming in on the wing and Semisi Cocker returning on the bench to give a real Antipodean flavour to the afternoon as Mayfield lined up with three Fijians and three Australians in their ranks. One of those South Sea Islanders, Seta Tala, replaced the suspended player-coach Sam Butterworth at scrum half whilst one-time Miners’ target Simon Moore also missed out with injury.

On a hot afternoon Miners knew the visitors would come out all guns blazing from the outset but the home side took the early lead through what is becoming an increasingly profitable avenue of attack, Scott O’Brien flighting the kick to the left wing and Sean McDonald gathering with supporting players either side of him, turning the pass inside for Jonny Youds to cut through and score from twenty metres out, adding the extras for good measure. But the visitors were undaunted and with their pack leader Joe Qaunici proving unstoppable at times they were soon back on terms. Qaunici felt he had scored only to be denied by Youds’ tremendous covering tackle forcing him into touch at the corner flag, but from closer range the teak-tough loose-forward wasn’t to be denied as he blasted his way through for the levelling score, converted by Aiden Gleeson. The visitors were running red hot and Komai Naululmatua almost forced his way through as another Youds try-saver kept Miners in the game, but having battened down the hatches during the Mayfield storm and sustained minimal damage, the second quarter saw Miners exert pressure of their own, and the visitors simply couldn’t live with their hosts.

The home side hit the front again as O’Brien showed his nimble footwork near the line, jinking through a bemused defence to put his side back ahead. Miners began to turn the screw and three tries in ten minutes before the break had them well in command. First from a penalty the Leigh side stretched Mayfield down their left flank, O’Brien passing to Adam Thomason and he in turn feeding Pain, who did well to gather the ball in and finish off at the corner, Youds converting. Mayfield were chasing shadows now and Cocker burst through from just inside the Mayfield half to leave the defence in tatters, Liam Coleman finishing off for his first, and then five minutes to the break the visitors were breached again, Youds and Andrew Hodson breaking from inside their own half and then the ball moved all the way along the line for Thomason to scramble in at the far corner and 24-6. Miners could even have added further tries during this dominant second quarter first when Cocker broke through again but his offload was unwittingly intercepted by Gleeson and then when Coleman’s kick behind the line just ran dead ahead of Thomason.

That next try came early in the second half though as Youds made real interest on the kick return from a Mayfield drop-out and then fed Hodson who went striding in from twenty metres out and 30-6. But as Miners perhaps reached for the metaphorical deckchairs and cigars Mayfield began plotting the most unlikely of comebacks. They had their second score as Adam Dybal forced his way over at the corner off Rob Kershaw’s pass and Matt Orvington landed the conversion, but whilst this didn’t initially make much impact upon the scoreboard it certainly provided a boost to the visiting side who once again began to charge in with purpose. Stand-off Paul Brearley, who would make a mean basketball player, was coming into the game supported by his maverick halfback partner Tala, and it was the Mayfield scrum-half who put bulky prop Gleeson wrestling over from close range, adding the extras himself for good measure. Danny Kaufman almost broke through as Mayfield were rampant but it was Thomason’s turn now to intercept and defuse the danger, but it merely postponed the inevitable as Todd O’Brien spied a gap and sliced through from forty metres out to narrow the deficit to just six points. With fourteen minutes to go it was game on for sure, but with Mayfield now so close and Miners rudely awakened from their reverie it was about who handled the tension better. Handling errors crept in from both sides but it was the home side looking slightly the more resolute as they held firm. In the final minute they confirmed their passage, winning a scrum after Kristian Duffy fumbled O’Brien’s kick into touch near his own line and from the position the Miners’ captain put Coleman over for his second.

Miners – Jonny Youds, Andrew Hodson, Sean McDonald, Adam Thomason, Gareth Paine, Steven Marsh, Scott O’Brien, Kevin Howells, Tom Farrimond, Darryl Kay, Danny Jackson, Liam Coleman, David Rowlands Subs Joe Harrison, Danny Jones, Todd Appleby, Semisi Cocker

Tries – Youds (3), O’Brien (24), Pain (27), Coleman (31, 79), Thomason (35), Hodson (45)

Goals – Youds 4

MoM – Scott O’Brien

Mayfield – Dan Kaufman, Komai Naululmatua, Wayne Ryburn, Nick Hargreaves, Kristian Duffy, Paul Brearley, Seta Tala, Mitch Spackman, Todd O’Brien, Matty Moores, Luke Sampson, Adam Dybdall, Joe Qaunici Subs – Aiden Gleeson, Matt Orvington, Ian Sampson, Rob Kershaw

Tries – Qaunici (18), Dybdal (50), Gleeson (62), O’Brien (66)

Goals – Gleeson 3, Orvington

Sin-Bin – Orvington (39, professional foul)

MoM – Joe Qaunici

Referee – Andy Tolley

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