Rochdale Mayfield 28 Crosfields 0

CROSFIELDS’ Challenge Cup odyssey ended at the earliest stage as Rochdale Mayfield once again proved too strong.

In front of the BBC Sport cameras, Soap could not find their way past Mayfield’s defence and the NCL Premier Division side progressed, just as they had done in 2008 and 2010.

After Jimmy Williams’ side had passed up the chance to take an early lead, failing to make the most of back-to-back sets on the Mayfield line within the first two minutes, Mayfield took control.

With the visiting defence holding on, Aidan Gleeson spun out of a tackle to crash over for the game’s opening score.

Liam Whailey backed up Matthew Ashton’s break to get the hosts over the line once again before the latter went from provider to scorer shortly after.

From the first play after a scrum, Mayfield elected to kick down field and Ashton beat the Soap defence to the ball to touch down.

Williams will be annoyed at the nature of the hosts’ fourth try, with Cole Connolly sniping over from dummy-half after spotting a gap behind the ruck.

With the hosts leading 22-0 at the interval, the game was all but over. Soap, though, responded with an improved second-half performance.

They conceded only one try, but it was another from the base of the scrum as Declan Sheridan shrugged off some suspect defence to wrap up the scoring.

Soap will now focus their attentions on their NCL Division Two campaign, which begins on Saturday, March 3, with a trip to Hunslet Warriors.

Crosfields: Whittaker; Clutterbuck, Hull, Roper, Taylor; Reid, Stanway; Barber, James, Millington, Bani, Williams, Clarke. Subs: Lee, Moore, Mahoney, Ansell.