U16s win away at Oxford Barbars

Oxford Barbarians U16s 17 v Maidenhead U16s 32
Sunday 6th February 2005

Maidenhead started the game well, forcing Oxford Barbarians to make a few errors to win a lineout 15m from the opposing try line. Pinpoint throwing from Karl Clarke and good lifting from Joel Rivers and Peter Gull made a clean catch for Joe Scrace to set up the maul. A big drive from the Maidenhead pack ended up a few meters from the Barbarian’s line. Dean Rogers opened the scoring with a powerful break from the back of a ruck.

The Maids then had to defend their own try line, with a clever interception by Chris Ellis. He then ran all the way to Oxfords try line to the delight of the cheering Maidenhead fans.

Several phases of play allowed Maids to progress up to the half way line, then a good call by Alex Dean released the flying Chris Ellis to sprint past all the opposition to place the ball under the posts.

A few scrappy plays in mid-field left Maidenhead with a penalty, Dean Rogers ran 20 yards with a quick tap penalty to give an opening pass to Chris Ellis, who then ran the wing down to 10 yards from the line passing the ball to Olli Savorani who then shrugged of a tackle to score his first ever try for Maidenhead Rugby Club.

Second half: Oxford came out of the changing rooms, and retaliated from their first half onslaught. They scored but missed the conversion.

Another lineout on the 5m line saw a break from Brinsley Munn just stopping short of the line, good strength from Dean Rogers helped him push over the line to make the score 25 -5.

Two little errors saw Oxford make the most out of both chances to score another two tries.

Maids got a penalty 10 meters in front of the try line. With a well practised tap penalty, a dummy run by Joe Scrace and a pass to Joel Rivers who saw the winner coming, no one was going to stop him from that distance, he was like a tank.

Maids won 32- 17