Blackheath 34 Macclesfield 0
The Blues arrived at Blackheath with a record of two wins from three visits, the memory of a decent showing against Coventry back in Cheshire a week earlier and, at least for the first period, a scrum that belied their position at the foot of the league table.
Indeed, the very first set-piece saw ball turned over in an area Macclesfield dominated for a lot of the match, this limited the hosts to a ninth-minute Alex Gallagher penalty for virtually the whole of the opening period.
However, despite their mighty scrum, and some good defence of the rolling maul, Macclesfield offered little in terms of penetration against a Club team still harbouring hopes of climbing from their mid-table spot.
The first try came from line-out ball which was moved swiftly, Markus Burcham and Dave Allen making the dents in the Blues’ defences, and Gallagher’s long pass found Mike Canty in space out wide for the Club’s first touch down.
It was Canty’s second score after the restart that really started to light up the afternoon though.
Jake Bedding released the Club full-back from inside his half to show electric pace and round the defence to cross in the corner.
And when George Oram also showed a burst of speed to cut an angle through the Blues’ midfield, he followed his effort up with a lovely off-load for Gallagher to crash over the try line on 56 minutes.
The bonus point for the hosts came from ball moved quickly away from the line-out.
Play came back infield for the second-row to shrug off some tired tackling and score next to the uprights.
The final try came when Pike again made good yardage, laying the ball back neatly for the fly-half replacement, to switch the play from left to right.
Burcham and Chris Sewell took play forward, before the back-row debutant’s one-handed off-load found Ryan Squires to race across and complete the move – and Macclesfield’s misery.
The defeat was the Blues’ second scoreless outing of what has, so far, been a wretched season and dashed virtually all the positivity they’d gained from the previous week’s narrow loss to Coventry.
Macclesfield host Rosslyn Park this Saturday.
