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U13s' Christmas stuffing of Windsor Maidenhead
U13 Bulls - 67 v Windsor B - 0 |
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Maidenhead Under 13s gave themselves a great Xmas present on Sunday but were less than generous to their visitors from Windsor…. Maidenhead U13 Bulls - 67 v Windsor B - 0 With the serious business of this age-group’s first ever League game to come, Maids were delighted to welcome two squads from Windsor to play consecutive matches. As it turned out the Maids Bulls squad provided a fantastic spectacle to entertain the crowd before the League clash, and to encourage their fellow players in the Stags squad. Such is the current strength in numbers of the U13 age group that despite a number of absences there were still 24 eager boys vying for a game for the Bulls and it was decided that all would partake at some stage of the game. Having selected the starting line-up, Windsor won the toss and elected to kick – unfortunately for them they kicked direct to promising Number 8 Sam Balfour who managed to evade several tackles and score one of the quickest tries this age group has probably seen - several parents actually missed this opening to the scoring as they were still discussing the unseasonally good weather not normally associated with mid December rugby. Unofficial estimates have the time at 9 seconds into the game. For those who missed this first try, both Windsor and Sam obliged again - Windsor kicking directly to Sam who promptly ran through more despairing tackles for another fine try, this time under the posts. Despite the use of rolling subs, Maidenhead maintained a high game standard and before the 1st half was finished, Alex McCulloch had added two tries and Shiv Khindria one. Half time saw the score at 27-0. The 2nd half was similar to the first with Sam Balfour adding 3 more tries to bring his tally for the day to 5 - a great achievement. Further tries were scored by Fred Reid, Iain Whiteford and Ben Scolari. Conversion duties were shared between Steve Carn (4) and Iain Whiteford (2). Credit to all the players - despite the number of substitutions, a good standard of play was maintained and the spectators were well entertained throughout. Squad: Maidenhead U13 Stags 24 v Windsor 5 – BERKSHIRE LEAGUE Spirits buoyed by the Bulls’ win, the Stags squad were nonetheless a little wary of their opponents, mindful of a series of close encounters over the past 7 years, and aware of some individual threats from key players. Despite this, it was the Stags who started the stronger, and not many minutes were on the clock before impressive Number 8 Alex Avery took advantage of some good ball retention and support play to crash over for a try. Further pressure was applied, but Windsor rallied and worked their way up the pitch, winning one penalty and then gaining a 2nd bite at the cherry as Maids failed to retire 10 metres. There followed the one unforgivable lapse in the Stags’ play for the match, as Windsor’s powerful number 8 was waved through by several potential tacklers to level the scores at 5 apiece. Happily this did not seem to dent the Stags’ morale, but rather to strengthen their resolve, and the side began to contest possession ever more fiercely, led well by captain Duncan Jones, but with a stand-out performance by Man of the Match open-side Chris Dow. With confidence high, inside centre Leo Smith cut a beautiful running line to release his centre partner Daniel Andrews-Jones, whose pace and power saw him score under the posts from the half-way line. William Thompson added the conversion to make the half-time score 12-5. Following some half-time shuffling of the squad, Fraser Brooks entered the fray with a point to prove and played his best rugby of the season so far, tackling like a demon and demonstrating a real eye for space. He sliced through the Windsor backs to put Leo Smith in to score and after fine driving play by the forwards was also instrumental in making room for the centres to run from their own 22, Smith once again feeding Andrews-Jones who demonstrated good hand-off technique before cutting inside the last covering defender to score the Stags’ final try under the posts. To sign off a fine performance Brooks added the conversion to make the final score 24-5. Squad: |