U14s under the weather at Staines

Staines U14s 45 v Maidenhead U14s 13
Sunday 6th November 2005

A grim, wet and windy day left Maidenhead U14s feeling under the weather after their visit to Staines.

The morning started brightly enough. Having soaked up some early pressure, Maids broke out due to an immense clearance kick from fullback Naish, and mounted a series of attacks on the Staines line. Townsend burst for the line but was brought down inches short for Cameron to pick up the ball in close support to cross the line to score. Heley’s kick in windy conditions was just wide. The restart was contested well by Maids forwards, but it wasn’t long before the Staines forwards were into their stride, driving Maids back. Having put in some hard work for the first 15 minutes, the Maids defence appeared to switch off and woeful tackling in the midfield allowed the powerful Staines centre to come back for a try. The kick was good – 7-5 to Staines. Play ebbed back and forth for the rest of the half with neither side managing to break through. However, Maids won a penalty in the Staines 22 on the stroke of halftime which Heley kicked to put Maids up 8-7 – game on!

Unfortunately, the game went the way of New Zealand – Wales the day before. Staines confidence appeared to be boosted by the relative ease of their first half try and they made increasingly penetrating runs, especially with their strong centres, fullback and No. 8. At the same time, Maids fighting spirit appears to have packed its way back up the A308, tackles became scarce, and vigour in the rucks and mauls ebbed away, allowing Staines to march in 4 tries in the 2^nd half with little opposition. Fire was re-ignited in the bellies of the Maids players by continued scrag tackling from Staines and they mounted a series of attacks in the last 5 minutes, allowing Cameron to crash over for his second of the game. Unfortunately the new found fight in the Maids players was short lived and, straight from the restart, the Staines fullback was waved through to the line by Maidenhead arms purporting to be tackles which left the score at the end of the game as 45-13 to Staines.

This was a disappointing result as this was a game that the Maids team could have won if the skill and commitment to win, seen in patches, had been present throughout as in some of the earlier games this season – perhaps tackle practice under fire-hoses is the big need for Wednesday evenings.