Impressive run is maintained

Maidenhead U16’s Tournament report

Sunday 17th October 1999

MAIDENHEAD under 16s were rewarded with success from a very fine team performance with both forwards and backs playing their part to the full, maintaining their record of winning their age group for the last four years.

They began their campaign against a very competitive Blackheath club, and Maids may have gone ahead after prop Steve Bennett made a great break to the right and the ball was driven on by hooker Jay Bowden, only for the ball to be turned over.
They continued to press and eventually took the lead when prop Terry Rainer set up the ruck on the right and the ball came down the line for Matthew Ansell to open his account.
Despite a number of other scoring opportunities, Maids did not increase their margin before the break, and this encouraged the opposition to come at them.
Blackheath had a sustained period of offence and pinned the home team 10 metres from their line. Maids' forwards defended resolutely and gradually pushed them back over the 22. Another couple scoring opportunities presented themselves to BIackheath but poor decision making and some slack handling saw them held to just the single score.

Local club Marlow were next in line and they presented stiff competition until a quick break from the base off the scrum by Gareth Edwards allowed Nils Mordt to spring through the defence and touch down. They added the next after a strong run from Damian Ball and completed the scoring at 15-0, through Ansell.

Their best performance of the day came against Abbey and they opened their account in the first three minutes when Lock Tom Guest made a stunning break in open play around the half-way line and eluded two tackles to run in under the posts.
More power-play from the forwards, with Christian Pedersen driving through the rucks saw quick ball down the line and full-back Jonathan Hammond came into the line and drew the cover before releasing Ansell for the score. Ansell repeated his scoring when he took advantage of a fine bit of footwork from fly-half Daniel Martin.
After the break, Edwards took advantage of some poor defence and darted over from the scrum from three metres.
Guest added his second of the day when he seized on a good break from Charlie Branch. Left-winger Bell added his second when he raced on to a fine ball from Simon Ward to run into the scoring zone unopposed.
Ansell completed the scoring when he found himself on flanker Lee Page's shoulder with an easy chance to run over, and finish the scoring at 30-0.

The last game of the competition saw them play against an unbeaten Cleve outfit, who had travelled up from Bristol.
This was very keenly contested and Maidenhead battled hard to make the breakthrough, and made some unforced errors in their desire to make the score.
The try eventually came when full-back Jonathan Hammond made the break in the line, receiving a good pass from Ward and jinked passed two tackles before getting clear of the cover defence and running over the line to put Maids ahead.
Cleve then shocked the home team with a breakaway try from an interception, and it was left to scrum-half Edwards to secure the score when he seized on a fine pass from Ward, who had followed up on Mordt's well struck kick into the defensive third, rounding off a great team performance and deserved success.

The team were particularly appreciative of the support work for the touchline of team coach Simon Edwards, team manager Steve Young and junior fixtures organiser Gordon MacDonald, who deserved special thanks for providing excellent competition in the age group.

 

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