South score 3 tries but miss out on bonues point

The Blues started excellently and were in the lead after three minutes when scrum-half Jordan Brookes moved the ball off the back off the maul and his quick hands put Marwick through to give Macclesfield a 7-0 lead.

It was the home team who scored a second try when they moved the ball along the line and Brierley capitalised on the overlap to score in the corner.

Macclesfield were looking to score tries and chose to kick for the corner when they had a penalty on the 22. That decision was vindicated in the 22nd minute when hooker Moss picked off the back of a ruck from a metre out to score.

South Leicester then got back into the game when Gareth Turner was given too much space and ran created an overlap, before Christopher Bale barged his way over the line.

That was as good as the first half got for South Leicester, who conceded for a fourth time in the 30th minute as Macclesfield earned a bonus point. Fly-half Barker’s decision to ignore an overlap was vindicated as he stepped past two players to score, before converting the kick.

The home side’s last try of the first half came in the 39th minute when Marwick read the opposition’s lineout brilliantly to break free before offloading to captain Finnemore to score.

Macclesfield started the second-half in the same way as the first, and scored within seven minutes thanks to Millar-Mills who scored after some sustained pressure on the South Leicester line.

South Leicester then responded with a try of their own, when a neat Rickie Aley grubber kick was pounced on by Gareth Kerr.

The sin-binning of South Leicester full-back Jacob Heath, was followed by The Blues’ eighth try. Marwick cut through the defence thanks to a neat Tom Eaton offload to score.

The 10th and final try of the match came in the final play of the match was scored by South Leicester’s Wesley Cope.

"Today was testament to that hard work even if we lost our way in the last 20 but we got the job done. We were aware of South Leicester’s strong pack so we wanted to move them around a bit, and we like to play at high tempo.”

South Leicester captain William Ward said, “It was a tough day for us, now we have to go back and have a look at things and assess what happened. The way we came back in the last few minutes was a positive; credit to Macclesfield they came out flying and they were getting quick ball. We have a strong positive attitude in the camp and we will look at today as an off day and look to bounce back next week.”

Report from Macclesfield web site, Attendance – 250