Macclesfield 29 Darlington MP 33
Macclesfield showed great resilience to collect two bonus points from their defeat to Darlington Mowden Park, despite having just 12 men on the field at one stage.
It was a game which at one point could have turned into another heavy defeat as they were shown three yellow cards in three minutes.
A nightmare start for the Blues saw them five points down after five minutes, an early lack in discipline leading to the visitors gaining good field position and a set-piece ended in a well-taken try from winger Henry Robinson.
Macclesfield responded quickly with fly-half Tom Morton’s well-hit penalty to stay in touch.
However, midway through the half the visitors’ lock forward Ben Gledhill coasted in and touched down to extend their lead to 12-3.
The Blues responded with a score of their own five minutes later. Macclesfield were dominating the play and eventually the Darlington defence gave way, Elliot Brierley pouncing on a loose ball in behind to touch down underneath the posts, from where Morton kicked an easy conversion to make the scorer 12-10.
Now in the ascendancy, Macclesfield took the lead with half an hour on the clock.
Some fantastic rugby from the Blues ended in Matt O’Regan evading several poor tackles and diving over, Tom Morton again adding the extras, to put his side 17-12 up.
But Darlington stole back the lead on the stroke of half-time. It was a special solo try from fly-half Grant Connon, who danced through countless Macclesfield tackles to put DMP 17-19 ahead at the break.
There was little action in the second half until the hour mark when the Blues’ discipline – a real Achilles heel this season – was again called into question with the three sin-bins in as many minutes.
Captain Mike Finnemore was the first sent to the bin, swiftly followed by Billy Robinson.
A penalty try moments later also resulted in Matt King being sent to join his team-mates, meaning Macc were down to 12 players and 26-17 in arrears.
Macclesfield defended heroically and dominated proceedings to ensure they survived the period of being three men down without a scratch.
In fact, despite their dominance, Darlington only managed to get the next score as soon as Macc were back to their full complement.
A strong driving maul from the set-piece saw them coast over the line, hooker Matt Thompson touching down to take the score to 33-17 with just eight minutes to play.
Darlington were then reduced to 14 men for Robinson’s infringement at the breakdown five minutes from time, awarding some momentum to the Blues for the closing stages.
And Brierley got his second try of the game, finishing off after Macclesfield attacked at a great pace, one that the Darlington defenders simply couldn’t handle and Morton put him in to offer some hope at 33-24.
And with two minutes left on the clock, the Blues set up a grandstand finish.
The backs combined brilliantly to create space out wide for leading try scorer King to grab his 11th of the season and put his side within four points of their opposition.
Despite this, Darlington held out for the five-point win, Macclesfield taking two but leaving the field with their pride intact.
