Macclesfield were undone by a Premiership player’s quality, as Gloucester fly-half Mark Davies inspired Cinderford to victory, even securing a bonus point with three quarters of the game to play.

The Blues had travelled south to face their fellow strugglers Cinderford in the hunt for a second away victory of the season which would start to close the gap on the rest with the halfway point of the season approaching.

But the hosts’ four converted tries in the first 20 minutes made it a near-impossible task to get anything from the game.

The Blues were without captain Mike Finnemore and vice-captain Jordan Brookes as they made the trip.

However, experienced head and last year’s captain Tom Eaton skippered the side from scrum-half with Adam Greendale at fly-half with scrum-half Ollie Chambers returning from his travels to fill a spot on the bench.

Macc, however, did not get the start they required and found themselves 7-0 down after two minutes.

Some fast link-up play saw the hosts go from one end of the pitch to the other and finish in the corner, centre Sam Hanks touching down.

Gloucester dual registered fly-half Davies began a superb personal performance by landing a cracking conversion from the touchline.

Cinderford crossed again five minutes later, number eight George Evans showing some good footwork combined with power to break two tackles and go over in the corner, Davies again slotting the kick to put Cinderford 14-0 up with just seven minutes on the clock.

Cinderford grabbed their third try on 12 minutes and heaped pressure on a Macc side who failed to come out of the blocks.

Davies was having a good day with ball in hand as well as he was pulling the strings, identifying space to get his team out wide and cross again in the corner, George Mills applying the final touch. Once again Davies completed the score with the extras.

On the 20-minute mark Cinderford made it 28-0 and secured the bonus point.

Davies was the provider again, as he executed a cross-kick perfectly, and all winger Alex Frame had to do was catch and touch down as Cinderford continued to dominate proceedings.

Five minutes later, an identical score continued the misery for Macclesfield, Davies once again providing the crossfield kick for Frame to score.

His conversion made it 35-0 as he continued his perfect afternoon with the boot.

This was the final score before the break and the Blues finally enjoyed some possession of their own but were denied on a couple of occasions by stern Cinderford defence, meaning they headed in at the break five scores down.

The second half was very different to the first, as the Blues dominated from start to finish and came close on a number of occasions but the hosts were as strong in defence in the second period as they had been in attack in the first.

For all Macclesfield’s strong attacking it took one advance for Cinderford to add another score.

They hit their visitors on the break and crossed the line on 49 minutes, Sam Wilkes bursting over.

Davies completed his flawless afternoon by tagging on the two to make the score 42-0.

The Blues grabbed a consolation score on 55 minutes through giant lock Dean Williams.

Surprisingly this turned out to be the final score of the match, although Giles Heagerty’s men enjoyed the majority of second half possession they failed to break through a watertight Cinderford defence and fell to their 14th defeat of the season.