U14s entertain Amersham & Chiltern

Maidenhead U14s 27 v Amersham & Chiltern U14s 7

Sunday 16th October 2005

MRFC entertained Amersham and Chiltern U14s on Sunday. Both sides were depleted due to county commitments and injury so this gave the coaches the opportunity to see some fresh talent over three 20 minute periods of play.

A&C kicked off allowing Maids to start the game with their now traditional fumble of the kick off. This is an area that clearly needs to be sorted out before the Berkshire league games start in December. From then on Chilts piled on the pressure and kept Maids pinned into their half of the pitch for almost the entire 20 minutes of play. Desperate defence kept Chilts out, but the forwards were lackadaisical and getting shoved around like they weren’t really bothered. Chilts managed to score a bizarre try just before the end of the first period of play: Maids had cleanly heeled the ball in the scrum and were holding steady. However, just as we thought we were going to put some width on the ball the Chilts flanker scooped it up and ran unopposed between the posts. The conversion made it 7-0. To make matters worse McLean retired injured with damaged ribs and wrist leaving Maids with just 14 players on the pitch.

The coaches gave some frank views on the performance of the forwards in the first period in an effort to stir them from their lethargy to feed some decent ball to the backs. It worked. From the kick off the Maids forwards looked like they meant business and piled into Chilts. Some excellent kicking from Heley made sure that A&C were kept on the back foot. The pressure lead to a series of infringements by Chilts at the rucks and mauls and a quickly taken penalty was worked quickly to the wing for new boy Matt Todd to show good pace and aggression to touch down in the corner. A fine kick form Heley narrowly missed. However this was the spark that Maids needed and more pressure resulted in another penalty which was again taken quickly by Wright. However this time some poor passing resulted in Rawlinson kicking the ball forward which obligingly fell into his hands. His powerful running was enough to ensure another try. Again a fine kick from Heley narrowly missed, but Maids were on a roll. More Maids pressure and another penalty, this time popped to Townsend who forced his way through a sea of defenders to make it 15-7 for Maids. And it got better. Maids actually caught a restart, charged up field and won clean ball. A perfectly executed cross kick from Heley turned the defence and bounced kindly for Rawlinson who surged to the line and scored between the posts. The conversion left the score a far more respectable 22-7 after the second period.

The third period was altogether more scrappy, probably because the 14 Maids players were tiring (many had played a school match the day before) and Chilts brought on fresher players. However, Maids absorbed some long periods of A&C pressure, before scoring the best try of the day. Running from defence, Cadden embarked on a typical charge before being tackled on the Maidenhead 10m line. However he off-loaded to Todd who again showed great pace to take the ball to the opposition 22m before he was tackled. He managed to keep the ball alive to pop it up to the onrushing Rawlinson who left Chilts for dead to score between the posts. However, last blood fell to Chilts. Showing great persistence, coupled with Heley’s languid run-up, the conversion was charged down – the first time this correspondent has seen such an event in over 30 years of rugby.

The final score was Maidenhead 27- A&C 7. Both teams will have benefited from this run out as a learning exercise for the squad players. Maids have shown they have players in the squad with real power and pace who can finish, and a pack of forwards to deliver good ball when they get fired up.

Maidenhead squad: Boyd, Burnett, Cadden, Cameron, Congdon, Hedouin, Heley, Manning, McLean, Peach, Rawlinson, Roberts, Todd, Townsend, Wright,