Otley benefit from favourable conditions to claim vital win in battle to avoid relegation

As befits a team coached by Geoff Wappett, Macclesfield rucked and mauled excellently but Gary Walker’s boys tackled like terriers and were back to their footballing best.

Taking no time to settle, the visitors took an early lead, centre Tom Davenport slipping through and two quick transfers tp put winger Joshua Fowles over.

Minutes later he was put away again but centre Joel Gill got across to make a fine tackle and the pace remained relentless, Otley finally getting on the scoreboard with a penalty from Christian Georgiou on 22 minutes. Then Howard Parr, with a well timed pass, put James Twomey away 50 metres out, Stephen Depledge shadowing the winger to take a pass and score.

A 30-metre rolling maul had Otley in trouble, but a turnover on their line saw the ball move out to Curtis Wilson who broke away and fed Georgiou who then put Ben Hough over and converted.

Macclesfield struck back after the break, Chris Jones driven over for fly-half Charles Winney to convert, but Adam Blades found a way through and Joe Quinn completed the final metres to give Georgiou a simple conversion. The game was put to rest on 58 minutes when a turn-over went quickly to Twomey who kicked ahead and out-pace the defence to score. Jack Moorhouse scored a late Macclesfield try.