U17s defeat Banbury in OBB clash

Banbury U17s 0 v Maidenhead U17s 26
Sunday 17th October 2004

Report by Tom "Ginge" Lewis

Maidenhead vs. Banbury Braves

When asked to do this report, at first I was excited, but about 5 minutes later, I realised it would be hard work to do. But nonetheless, on Sunday morning, I woke up at 8:00, and left the house at 8:30 armed with my Dictaphone.

On the car journey to the match I caught up with nervous and pubescent skipper, David Hodgson: "Yeh, urm, think we’re gonna penetrate in the backs today, should be a good one. And Matty Fen said they had a stadium so…"

I also caught up with Maids lock, and occasional back rower Andrew Jones:

"Oooooooooooo." Was all he could manage.

Arriving at the ground, Matty Fen didn’t disappoint, sure enough, they had a bloody stadium. After a quick change the lads were out training, at which point I caught up with beastly second row Tom Plumer:

"I’m cold, and my back hurts." Intriguing.

At this point in time Dayno also added: "Alrite boysch!"

Just after noting a subtle easterly breeze, the Banbury squad began their training, at 10:32 precisely. After an inspiring team talk from Jonesy and the Badger, the lads were out and raring to go. KO was dead on time, and 23 seconds in, the Goat knocked it on. However, after 1 minute and 30 seconds we made our first line break, and from then on were on the attack. Our first T-R-Y opportunity came from a penalty. A kick to the corner from a confident South African led to a catch and drive, a rolling maul, dummy scissors and break, which proved to be fruitless.

The next exciting play was instigated by skipper Hodgson. Reading that the blindside was on, he received the pass from Cadz, however, an unsuccessful pass to the constantly supporting Paz ended the move.

16 minutes 30, and Banbury are relieved of pressure for the first time, only to have the ball replaced deep in their half after a darting run from the always confident Ryan Christian, and some great support play from Ratboy and, again, Paz.

Discipline, however, let us down after a line break from Dayno was spoiled by our first penalty. Banbury were then able to relieve pressure once more, and get in our 22 for the first time in the game. Liam, or at least I think his name was Liam, the Banbury number 10, showed some confident running and kicking to get the ball right down to our own 5m line, only to be barged into touch. From their lineout, some confident back play would have led to a try had Ryan not dislodged the ball in a selfless tackle, which was then hacked up field by Macca.

Banbury were on the offensive once more, only to be halted when Liam took a powerful hit, and a backseat in the game.

Maids then progressed into the Banbury 22 once more, and were awarded a penalty after a dummy throw into the lineout. The ball was spread out to the backs in the 2^nd and 3^rd phase, and Ryan, with yet another darting run, cut the defence apart like butter to get the first points. Hodgson converted to make the score 7-0.

Banbury however, weren’t going to roll over. Immediately they came back at us and forced a lineout on the 5m. Pressure was relieved by an interception from Mitch, and a clearance by Hodgson.

It was at this point I noticed some clouds were closing in. I asked Stefan for his opinion on the matter: "Yeh, definitely, I mean, ooo, its gonna get a bit chilly soon, bit nippy, but we’ll carry on ‘cos we’re rugby players."

At the 30 minute mark, Maids had another profitable attack. With some silky back play on the Banbury 22, the ball was shuffled to the goat, who darted inside to get Maids’ second try. Sadly, Hodgson couldn’t slot the con, but bless him, it was a good kick.

At halftime, these were Jack’s thoughts: "I think it’s quite a good match."

The second half began with Liam’s KO being caught by a confident and hot Plume, who gave to Dayno for our first line break of the half. A stolen lineout and catch and drive allowed Plume to beast it over the line and make the score 17-0. Con successful and it looked good. 19-0.

"4 minutes in, Banbury have brought on subs, could this be pivotal?" No

Yet another penalty given away, and an extra 10m for backchat, led to an unsuccessful Maids attack. At this point, Ratboy was replaced by Jacko. I caught up with him: "I’m feeling good, fort I had a good game"

Tucks too was substituted, however, he was all the way on the other side of the pitch.

Another penalty, and an extra 10m for backchat lead to a Banbury scrum under our own posts, and a further penalty given away for offside at the scrum lead to a Banbury lineout on our 5m line. This, however, was disrupted by a Muscular Plume, and Banbury knocked on. After pissing about with it on our own line, Hodgson finally had the sense to put boot to ball and relieve pressure. The victory in the scrum was one of many, won by a dominating Maids pack.

20 minutes into the second half, Maids were reduced to 14 men, after a string of offences climaxing in a late tackle lead to the dismissal of Maids flanker Mitch Batten.

A few minutes later, Banbury were gifted with a penalty on our try line, which was forced and then knocked on. At this point it was then suggested, that with a half decent kicker, on a half decent day, if even half the penalties were converted into points, the game would have taken a completely different shape.

Later on in the match, a box kick from late replacement Cadz, lead to a loose ball being chased by Cannon and Liam. A light scrap ended in Alex being sin binned and Maids further reduced to 13 men.

On the 24^th minute of the second half, new recruitment Adam Dauncey made an appearance, with immediate effects in the rucks and loose play. This substitute was followed by Maids legends Sam Stefan coming on at full back with great affect, and Olly styles who braved a cold to replace Cadz.

From a scrum under the Banbury posts, Maids capitalised on a "holey" defence. To explain more, here’s Dayno:

"Right, 1-2, Andrew Hogan - fly half, Me in the centre. Comes in for the crash ball, monsters in front of him, BANGS them over, try, takes it back, conversion, love it."

Post score, I spoke to Ryan Christian who had been substituted:

"Jack stood on my ankle"

Following a try saving tackle from Stefan, and a few last minute and frantic attacks from Banbury, the goat returned, only to depart with everyone else 2 minutes later.

Captains final thoughts:

"Urm….bitty."

"Lacked Toronto magic for me."

"Strengths? A few good passages, strung a few phases together, but, urm, forwards have dominated,"

"Weaknesses?...cheap penalties"

Plume’s post match thoughts:

"There’s naked men in the shower, its foul."

"Oh, the game? We played really bad, it was alrite, had our moments. I’m hot"

"We flowed quite well, stupid things though"

"Strengths? Not many dominated in forwards, scrums and lineouts good, but, urm, yeh it was alrite."

"First up tackling was pretty bad, positional stuff pretty bad, it’d say about 40% maidenhead strength 2day"