No "Luck of the Irish" for U14s on tour

April 2005

Maidenhead’s Under 14’s travelled to Ireland for their Spring tour, taking part in the Cork International Junior Tournament. They went with high hopes and a full strength squad of players, coaches and parents. They returned having spent a great 4 days, enjoying excellent weather, beautiful scenery and good craich, but not having lived up to their expectations on the pitch.

A record of 2 wins and 3 losses did not win them any silverware, but they were never outclassed and on another weekend might well have come away with one of the 2 trophies on offer. However, a rash of uncharacteristic basic errors and some flawed decision making wasted patches of excellent rugby and some good individual performances.

Maids were unlucky to play their first game on Saturday against Sligo, a fiercely competitive side, who made up in aggression for what they might have lacked in skills. Maids also suffered from some unusual interpretations of the laws from a referee whose decisions puzzled even the most impartial of the spectators. After a closely fought match, it was 2 such decisions, made one after the other in the dying minutes of the game, which gave Sligo a penalty under the posts and a narrow 3 point win.

Against the English Kibworth team, Maids’ overall domination was dissipated by some basic handling errors, but they always looked to have the game under control.

In the end a try from James Henderson, which he also converted, gave them a 7-0 win.

Maids next games was against Derby I, a strong well organised team who went on to beat Sligo in the final of the main Cup competition. Derby took advantage of a traditional slow start by Maidenhead to run in an early try. The match then remained very much in the balance until mid way through the second half, when some sustained Derby pressure, generously assisted by some poor defence, allowed Derby to run in 3 late tries, to leave Maids losing by 0-22.

Maidenhead started the Sunday out of the Cup, but with serious ambitions of winning the Plate. 2 tries from Aaron Lambert and one each from Cameron Anderson and James Henderson, all of which were converted by James Henderson gave Maids a 28-0 victory against Derby II.

A return match against Kibworth was then all that stood between Maids and the Plate.

Kibworth were quick to spot some gaps in the Maids’ defensive line and ran in 2 tries down the right wing. Maids started the second half much more positively and an unconverted try from Aaron Lambert brought Maids within a score of victory. However, it was not to be and a recurrence of elementary mistakes prevented Maids from scoring and allowed Kibworth to run in a third try leaving Maids losing 5-15 and with an acute sense of what might and could have been.

Rugby tours give teams a chance to re-appraise some of their squad players. It was no surprise to anyone who watched the team playing in Cork to hear that the player chosen as "player of the tour" was flanker Tom Brooks. Tom has not had the recognition accorded to some of the team’s "stars" and it was good to see that determination, commitment and hard work appropriately rewarded.