High Wycombe U13s 10 v Maidenhead U13s 34
Sunday 19th December 2004

A Maidenhead U13s travelled to High Wycombe on 19th December for a hastily rearranged fixture, and finished the year on a high note winning 34-10 and scoring 6 tries in the process.

Maidenhead started with purpose as flame haired new-boy O'Byrne caught the kick-off and charged 30m into Wycombe territory. The forwards took the play up to the Wycombe line and camped there for a few minutes, but couldn't quite put together enough accurate play to make a score. However, Wycombe couldn't relieve the seige and the ball came out to new boy Rawlinson who blasted past the defence to score the first points of the day. The distance was too much for Heley to convert on this occasion. Maids were quickly on the attack again and were awarded a penalty 10m out. This was bread and butter to Townsend who charged over the line to score Maids' second try. Heley's outstanding conversion added the 2 points.

Wycombe were obviosuly up for the game and stung by conceding 2 tries rallied and put the Maids defence under pressure. Some adventurous handling in our 22 went awry allowing Wycombe's burly centre to hack through and touch down in the corner. Maids responded by some vigourous attacking play of their own, but continued to make it difficult for themselves through in accurate execution, such as poor quality passing, taking the wrong options or kicking the ball to the opposition in rucks. There was also an alarming amount of turnover ball where players were getting isolated or support was slow in helping their team mates. The overall flow of the game was not assisted by the coaches making a nuber of squad substitutions. However, eventually some good quality posession was won allowing Heley to launch the back line. Some quality interplay amongst the centres put Cary into space, who took the tackle and offloaded to Rawlinson looping round. Rawlinson again showed a clean pair of heels to score the try of the day.

But Wycombe still came back, and some poor tackling in the centres allowed the Wycombe centre a second try and allowing them to turn round 17-10 behind.

The second half was played out pretty much as the first half, although Wycombe were denied any real scoring opportunities. Maids extended their lead through three fine individual efforts, O'Byrne charging from a penalty, Naish with a 70m break for the base of the scrum (converted by Heley) and superb run from Alderson (who turned the Wycombe fullback inside out before dotting down). The game ended up 34-10 to Maidenhead.

So what can we learn for this win? Well, accuracy of execution is vital so we score all the opportunites we create. We have now got the power and pace in the backline we were looking for earlier in the season. 2005 will be an exciting time.

Special thanks goes to the High Wycombe squad for hosting us at such short notice.

Maidenhead Squad: Alderson, Boyd, Cadden, Cameron, Cary, Faulkner, Heley, Hedouin, Manning, Messing, Naish, O'Byrne, O'Connor, Peach, Rawlinson, Roberts, Sugden, Thomson, Townsend, Wright