Maidenhead U17s 15 v Effingham U17s 0

Effingham kicked off and their kick was fielded well by Tom Meredith who drove back at the visitors to gain valuable ground. The Maidenhead pack combined well to drive as a unit, pushing back Effingham. From this early pressure, Maids had several scoring opportunities, which were lost through poor handling amongst the three-quarters. Eventually, the pressure from both forwards and backs caused Effingham to concede a penalty, the first of many, and this was taken quickly by Pat Murphy. The ball was moved quickly through several pairs of hands until it reached full back Moursi, who had joined the line at speed. He crossed in the right corner to open the scoring for Maids. Murphy failed narrowly with the conversion.

From the Effingham restart, again Maids fielded the ball cleanly with lock John Jenkins making a storming drive at the Effingham midfield. The visitors conceded a penalty and Murphy kicked to the Effingham corner. The visitors stole the ball from the Maids put in, and from the subsequent drive Maids conceded a penalty, which was taken quickly. The Effingham pack drove at the home team and were awarded a scrum. However, hooker Lambden took the ball against the head, it was channelled quickly to scrum half Murphy who went down the blindside at high speed to score a fine individual try covering 25m. He then converted his own try to bring the score to 12 – 0.

Once again, the restart ball was taken cleanly and fed through several hands to reach full back Moursi, who made an excellent break along the left wing. He was brought down just short of the line and Effingham retrieved the situation slightly by driving back at Maids. The visitors were awarded a scrum, which again Lambden won against the head, and Maids moved the ball out wide before being brought down just short of the line. However, Effingham had gone offside at the scrum, and Maids were awarded a penalty in front of the posts. Murphy slotted the ball cleanly between the posts – this was a rare occasion for the Maids as most of the penalties are kicked to touch or run quickly.

At this stage, this visitors were becoming frustrated by their inability to penetrate the Maids defence and the game started to deteriorate with several off ball incidents which resulted in two Maids players having to leave the field for medical attention. Fortunately, the half time whistle went with the score at 15 – 0 to the home team.

The game restarted with the visitors determined to take the game to Maids. However, excellent defence and gritty play by the home team kept Effingham from scoring. Unfortunately, the game had degenerated into a scrappy affair and the referee wisely blew for full-time with at least half the second half still to play. This was a bad tempered match, which Maids dominated from the start, and were much the better team. Unfortunately, they allowed themselves to be brought down to a level of play that is not acceptable. Hopefully, all the players will have learned from this match to maintain their discipline under provocation.