U16s defeat strong Saracens side

Maidenhead U16’s 42pts v Saracens U16’s 12 pts

Sunday 12th March 2000

Maidenhead were delighted to entertain Saracens as they offered strong competition for the high calibre Maidenhead Under 16 outfit.  

The home team went ahead after 9 minutes when Jonathan Hammond went on an elusive run from the
back and shipped the ball on to Dan Martin who was in support to take the ball over the half way line.   As the covering defender came to shut him down, he flipped the ball to Simon Ward and he drew the last defender and fed the ball to Tom Guest whose strong run  took him under the posts.    Martin was again at the heart of the playmaking when he cleverly put the ball over the heads of the flat
back line and followed up to pin the full back with a fine tackle and gain valuable territory for Maids.  During the early exchanges the Saracens forwards put some pressure on the home team pack, however they could not break through a well disciplined back line.

A fine break from the back of the scrum by Gareth Edwards started another scoring move where the handling was particularly impressive.  Christian Pedersen took the ball on from Edwards and in turn found prop Steve Bennett in support to drive into the Saracens half.  The ball was then collected by winger Damian Bell who went into top gear and flew down the pitch to run in under the posts.

Guest who had another top quality performance, saw dividends from his tireless running when he was able to take the ball from Ward who had sprinted through the flat defence and line the full back up before popping the ball off, and run the ball under the posts.

Saracens were still competing strongly and starting to explore the channels around the edge of the Maids scrum.  One such move saw them run over to score after a period of sustained pressure. The home team completed their first half scoring when Nils Mordt touched down after a crash ball set up.

With the second half only ten minutes old, Hammond made another of his characteristic jinking runs and slipped by 5  players to run over.   The conversion, 5 meters from the touch line capped an excellent kicking display from Simian Ward

The final try for Maidenhead was a masterpiece of movement by the back line. Setting up a scrum 15 meters from the Saracens line, Maids executed a planned move seeing the whole back line darting in different directions pulling their covering defenders across the pitch.  Scrum half Edwards seized on the opportunity and darted through the gap to run over.

Saracens added another near the end when they exploited opportunities around the scrum again late in the second half, although Maids were already coasting a little.

 

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