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U13s' mixed fortunes at Newbury Newbury U13A
12 v Maidenhead U13 Stags 0 |
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Newbury A 12 – Maidenhead Stags 0 (Berkshire League) Despite the promising start to their first ever league campaign against Windsor in December, and a good win against Teddington to start 2007, Maids’ Stags squad failed utterly to make headway against a very strong wind and a well organised Newbury side on Sunday. Playing against the wind in the first half Maids’ backs struggled uncharacteristically to get any sort of fluidity to their handling and spilled pass after pass. Unable to gain ground by kicking into the wind, the side fought an almost constant rearguard action with the forwards competing well against a large pack, and did very well to concede only one try in the first half. At only 5-0 down and with the advantage of the wind after half-time, expectations were high that the Stags would finally “click” and put some moves together, but it just didn’t happen – and no matter how hard the forwards fought to win ball, it was to no avail as the backs took wrong options or failed to execute the right ones. Newbury eventually sensed Maids’ desperation and after applying more pressure, they crossed for a second try, which with the conversion took the final score to 12-0. Full credit to Newbury for managing the conditions, but this was a game Maids could – and should – have won. The squad: Edward Kaye, Calum O’Flaherty, Michael Trevena, Duncan Jones (capt.), Hal Orchard, Dominik Bart, Chris Dow, Alex Avery, Luke Thomas, William Thompson, Thomas Eckles, Leo Smith, Daniel Andrews-Jones, Markus Olivier, LD Basson, Josh Edney, Daniel Keir, Blake Nicol, Fred Reid, Sam Balfour, Shiv Khindria, Max O’Connor Newbury B 5 – Maidenhead Bulls 36 Apparently completely unbothered by whatever malaise had affected the Stags, the Bulls continued their fine form with a blistering demolition of Newbury’s second string. This was a great team performance, with committed tackling, great handling, good support play and astute use of the conditions. Playing with the wind in the first half, captain Shiv Khindria marshalled his troops expertly and the Bulls built a commanding lead with a hat-trick of tries from Ben Scolari and one apiece for Gareth Orwin and James Balmer. Although these were the scorers, the whole squad deserves mention as each and every player contributed noteworthy performances. In the second half Newbury, to their great credit, fought back to claim a consolation score, but Captain Khindria applied the coup de grace with a startling burst of speed to cut through the defence for the final score. Iain Whiteford got 3 conversions to make the final scoreline Newbury B 5 – 36. Maidenhead Bulls Scorers: Ben Scolari (3), James Balmer, Gareth Orwin, Shiv Khindria. Conversions: Iain Whiteford (3) The squad: Blake Nicol, Shiv Khindria (Capt.), Nick Jones, Adam Callaway, Kaya Baxter, Jack Adcock, James Balmer, Jason Bates, Jake Dawson, Michael Lewis, Sam McCarthy, Gareth Orwin, Jonathan Perry, Dhruv Surya, Simon Crosbie, George Thomas, Daniel Williams, Iain Whiteford, Piers Baron, Sam Balfour, Ben Scolari |
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