U13s rout Ruislip

Ruislip U13s 5 v Maidenhead U13s 42
Sunday 23rd October 2005

The Under 13’s travelled the short distance down the M40 to Ruislip on a sunny morning that was in marked contrast to last season’s snowbound encounter. The hosts fielded a large pack and had plenty of substitutes on hand to battle Maids’ 17-man squad.

After an evenly matched first half, Maids drove home their 10-5 advantage with a well co-ordinated display of attacking rugby to win 42-5.

Great passing from TJ Hudson put Ben Pritchard into space where he found Elliott Reid in the left hand corner for a well-worked opening try. Good work by Sam Yates and Oliver Evans and a strong run from George Kirk gave Maids the upper hand early on. But after absorbing the pressure, Ruislip surged back. A covering tackle by Ben Pritchard prevented an almost certain equalising try. Spurred on, Ruislip pressed their advantage and levelled the scores. Maids came straight back after winning a line out, Oliver Evans slipped the ball to Jasper Vanderwalk who left everyone in his slipstream, running three quarters of the length of the pitch to plant the ball confidently between the posts. This gave Maids a 10.5 lead at the break.

Playing down the slope for the second period, Maids unleashed an impressive display that had their coaches purring (kind of) with pleasure and saw a further six tries scored for no reply.

The Backs were working more smoothly now and Alex Jones and Michael James in the Forwards were getting their tackles in, driving low and hard in the rucks.

Pacey Matt Morgan broke clear and came with within a few yards of scoring. Elliott was first to the loose ball to make it 15.5. Soon after, Elliott Reid stampeded from his own to the opposition’s five metre line only for a last ditch tackle to halt his run. The momentum of the match was all in Maids’ favour now. Strong driving in the scrum on five metres saw play spread wide in another well-worked move that was finished off by Charlie Wickham-Smith to make it 20-5

Maids were winning the mauls, despite Ruislip’s large pack, and were quick to break out. They were also dominating the lineouts with the height advantage of Michael James and Ben Pritchard. Ruislip were tiring but didn’t give up though, pressing to pull back a try. Maids' backs continued to spread the ball around well, with quick hands from Rory Creffield and Sam Yates. Jasper Vanderwalk ran in another try with another unstoppable turn after good work by Oliver Evans. Ben Pritchard converted.

Ruislip could do little to impede the tide now as Oliver found space to score before Jasper landed his third after a determined surge from Paul Sweeny set up the attack. Maids played with greater cohesion and better passing than they showed in the recent youth tournament and, after their traditionally relaxed start to proceedings, got their tackling in to good effect.