|
8th time lucky for U13s 8th October 2006 |
|||
 |
|||
|
Maidenhead Under 13s finally lifted the trophy at their own tournament, after attempting to do so since their first year of club rugby at Under 7. The squad, including a number of players who have been playing since that first attempt in 1999, had to overcome 4 sides, including their own club mates (Maids having entered two squads at this age group), local rivals Reading Abbey, Brentwood, and first time visitors to Maidenhead, Selby RFC, who had travelled down from Yorkshire, braving both the M1 and the elements as they spent the night before the tournament under canvas in Hurley!). The opening game was the all Maidenhead affair, which brought about a very closely fought first half where the Stags opened the scoring through Fraser Brooks on the wing, only to induce a period of sustained pressure from the Bulls. This culminated in what looked a great try from impressive flanker James Balmer, but the referee ruled the ball had been held up, and despite mighty efforts, particularly in the forwards, that was the closest the Bulls got. In the second half the Stags ran in 3 tries through Thomas Eckles, Daniel Andrews-Jones, and William Thompson, despite ferocious tackling from Shiv Khindria, George Thomas, Calum O’Flaherty and James Balmer to name just a few. Maidenhead were the only club above Under 12 to enter two squads in an age group, and this was always going to be a test for the Bulls, but their character and increasing ability did them credit, with a number of players making a mark. The Stags’ second game was against our visitors from Selby, and the Stags started much the sharper side playing to their strengths in the backs with tries coming from cousins Leo Smith and Daniel Andrews-Jones. Half time saw the scoreline at 10-0, though Maids had had far more possession, but the spirit and backbone of Selby were on the increase and would not let the home side increase their lead. Selby continued to strengthen during the second half, getting a score back, but despite piling on the pressure Maids’ defence held firm and the win was in the bag. The third match was against Brentwood, who had an obvious threat in the form of an extremely large and powerful number 8. Having spotted the danger man, Maids proceeded to usher him through to score two tries in the first half(!), and despite an otherwise great day, must remember that every tackle counts. Whilst heads went down briefly, self-belief re-emerged, and it was great to see Jason Bates drive over to score in his first Maidenhead Tournament to bring the score back to 5-10 at half time. The second half was a tight-knit affair, with Maids pressing but not coming away with anything to show for it until Max O’Connor took a pass on the wing and squeezed in at the corner to level the score at the end of the match. Results elsewhere meant that Maids needed only to draw against Reading Abbey to win the tournament, but Abbey had showed some serious pace in the backs and a "fighting spirit" that meant the game could not be taken for granted. The pre-match team talk for once seemed to have done the trick however (or perhaps it was the fact that the boys knew this could be their year?), and Maids were 10-0 up by half time with both tries from Daniel Andrews-Jones showing an impressive turn of speed after tremendous work from the forwards. Things started well in the second half with Maids continuing to apply pressure, and LD Basson scored a classic try from the wing with a wonderful catch and return run from 40 metres out. Daniel A-J then completed his hat-trick, and although Abbey were allowed to get one score back, Alex Avery rounded things off in emphatic style, with a textbook Number 8 pick up from the base of a scrum, driving over to get a score he deserved and leave the final score at 25-5. The Stags thoroughly deserved their win and showed that the somewhat shambolic performance in the training game against Cobham the week before had provided a well-observed wake up call. The forwards rucked much better to secure ball for the backs, and the backs on the whole played an uncomplicated but effective game. Duncan Jones proved an excellent captain, Hal Orchard made a welcome return to the "A" squad and showed it was well-deserved, Hunter Goetz made an impressive and powerful debut, Michael Lewis played in 3 different positions on his "A" debut, Chris Dow was a huge influence in each game, but all members of the squad deserve praise for an impressive achievement against 4 competitive sides. The squads: Bulls: Blake Nicol, George Thomas, Josh Edney, Chris Roy, Aaron George, Jacob Sanders, Calum O’Flaherty, James Balmer, Alister Eaton, Daniel Williams, Alex Temperley, Jonathan Perry, Shiv Khindria, Iain Whiteford, Simon Crosbie, Piers Baron, Dhruv Surya, Ross Brown, Gareth Orwin, Max Ring, Jack Adcock, Niall Collins |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |