U12s win the Bowl at Brean Sands

29th-30th April 2006

Maidenhead Under 12 s entered two squads into the annual Brean Sands A team festival – the Lions and the Tigers. Both squads were missing key players and for the Tigers in particular it proved a tough tournament, as they were being asked to take on regular A team players after a season playing other B teams.

The Tigers’ spirit was extraordinary as in every game they played they pressurised much larger opposition, with every player putting in a season’s personal best performance and the tackling demonstration boding well for the transition to Junior rugby next year.

The feisty Tigers squad: Hal Orchard, George Thomas, Blake Nicol, Calum O’Flaherty, James Balmer, Jacob Sanders, Jonathan Perry, Iain Whiteford, Max Ring, Piers Baron, Steve Carn, Gareth Orwin, Ross Brown, Matthew Smith.

In the other pool the Lions faced some tough opposition, including Cwmbran, the winners from last year, unbeaten over 2 seasons, and Old Alleynians, unbeaten over 4 seasons. The first match was against Cobham, however, and Maids gave an indication that they were up for the challenge with a great demonstration of fast, open rugby and clinical finishing. 2nd row Dominik Bart won a line out, the ball moved into the backs and then Bart was on hand in support to open the scoring. From the kick off Maids stormed forwards, winning a scrum 10 metres out, from which Luke Thomas put his fly half Fraser Brooks in to score with a beautifully timed and weighted pass and a lovely angle of running.

Once again Maids attacked straight from the kick off, and a 3rd try arrived after a great run by Markus Olivier who off-loaded to Tom Eckles who put in centre Daniel Andrews-Jones. More pressure followed in the 2nd half and Duncan Jones took clean line out ball and charged though the line to score before Markus Olivier wrapped the game up 25-0 with a powerful burst off the back of a ruck.

Next game was against Cwmbran, whose last defeat had been to this Maids side 2 years ago in the festival final. Clearly the Welsh side were on different diets to the Lions, as they were for the most part head and shoulders above their opposite numbers, but for most of the first half it looked as if Maids’ fast running game would carry the day. Scores were level at 0-0 at half time, but Maids had wasted a couple of chances to score. In the 2nd half however, Cwmbran put Maids under more pressure and some very physical play was taking its toll. Eventually a clever kick through by Cwmbran proved hard to gather and a speedy Welsh winger stole a try and despite some excellent play driving towards the opposition line, Maids were unable to equalise and finally lost out to a 2nd try on a breakaway in the last move of the game. Final score 0-10.

The next opposition for the Tigers were Westcombe Park, a side Maids had never beaten. The first half was all Maidenhead, with great runs from all the backs moving the opposition left and right at will before Leo Smith used a gap created to score. Following the kick off Maids made their way back up the pitch and gained a 5 metre scrum after winger Chris Dow had been held up over the line. A lovely move followed with an interplay between the centres seeing Daniel Andrews-Jones score a second for Maids to take a 10-0 lead into half time. The second half, however, was the only poor half Maids played all weekend, as concentration vanished and Westcombe Park upped the pressure, eventually forcing their way over the line to get a score. Happily Maids held on and the whistle went on a 10-5 win.

Last game on the Saturday was against Old Rutlishians and a better performance followed, with a great break by Max O’Connor leading to an opening try for Markus Olivier, who scored a second before half time and was impressive throughout, winning possession to release the backs, which in due course led to a try for full back Sam Maguire coming into the line at pace. Final score 15-0.

With 2 more pool games to play on the Sunday all sorts of permutations seemed possible in terms of which teams might qualify from the pool. All the Lions could do was play to their maximum ability and score as many tries as possible. In their first game against Sidcup they did just that, with the speed of the Maidenhead team simply too much for a large but not terribly mobile opposition. Sam Maguire opened the scoring, Markus Olivier scored 2, and Leo Smith and Dominik Bart made it 25-0 at half time, with Smith adding a 6th try to finish the match at 30-0 early in the 2nd half.

The final pool game was against Old Alleynians, who had not lost in the tournament and whose star centre had been scoring tries at will in previous games. A tense first half was probably just edged by Maids but scores were level at 0-0 at half time. In the 2nd half, however, Maids were caught napping as they reorganised after an injury and a fine move off a scrum saw Old Alleynians take the lead. Maids fired up and were straight back into the game putting pressure on, but time was ticking away. With seconds remaining Maids won a penalty, the forwards drove the ball up, recycled, and Leo Smith got an equalising try with the final play of the match. 5-5.

This meant that once results and tries scored and conceded had been calculated, Maids Lions were in the Bowl final. (Old Alleynians went in to the Cup Final which they won 25-0). The opponents in this game were Old Elthamians, and Maids once again went to employ their fast game against another set of huge players. Early indications were good, with Markus Olivier scoring early on, but a bad injury to Dominik Bart (pictured) caused disruption and the score remained 5-0 at half time. Having re-gathered themselves at half time, Maids then turned it on in the 2nd period, and Max O’Connor scored a classic wingers try in the corner as the ball moved right down the back line at pace. Daniel Andrews-Jones pounced on a loose ball to grab a 3rd try, Sam Maguire added a 4th and Josh Edney rounded things off after a great off-load by LD Basson. 25-0.

Overall a great performance, with 22 tries scored and only 3 conceded, and marred only by injuries to Michael Trevena and Dominik Bart, who at least have a few months off to recover!

The Squad:
Markus Olivier, Edward Kaye, Michael Trevena, Josh Edney, Danny Keir, Duncan Jones, Dominik Bart, LD Basson, Luke Thomas, Fraser Brooks, Leo Smith, Daniel Andrews-Jones, Thomas Eckles, Chris Dow, Max O’Connor, Sam Maguire.