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U13s finish 2nd at Esher Tens Saturday 28th April 2007 |
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Maidenhead U13s visited the prestigious Esher 10 a side festival on Saturday and played some spellbinding rugby in hot and demanding conditions to finish 2nd in the age group. Had the order of play been slightly different, it might have had a big impact on the overall result, but as it was Maidenhead’s first game was against eventual winners Barking, who were by some margin the biggest collection of boys of this age that Maids have come up against all season. Maids have played big sides before and won by adopting the right game plan, but on this occasion Barking’s players proved not only big but also fast and powerful, and an early injury to one of Maids key defensive players was a sign of things to come. Despite valiant efforts, Barking crashed through for 3 first half tries, whilst Maids could make little headway. Things looked brighter in the second half with sustained pressure from Maids, and while Barking broke away to score one more against the run of play, the contest was much more even, and Maids would have got at least a couple of scores back if the ball had been moved out quicker. (Barking tired visibly in later games and conceded several scores, so had we met them later who knows what might have resulted!). Final score was Barking 26 – 0 Maidenhead The next opponents were Battersea Ironsides, whose big and speedy backs division had brought them a 53-5 win in their first match. Things looked ominous for Maids as they let two tries in, both of which were converted, but this seemed to spark Maids into life and first Daniel Andrews-Jones and then Chris Dow scored in opposite corners to bring the score back to 10-14. Maidenhead now had their confidence back and dominated the second half, Duncan Jones scoring from a great pop pass from Chris Dow, and converting this and a final score from Sam Balfour to make the final score Maidenhead 24-14 Battersea. Esher had two squads entered, the strongest of which based on the day’s results appeared to be Esher “Reds”, whom Maids played next. Maidenhead were now firing on all cylinders, however and completely blew their opponents away. Chris Dow got the first score and LD Basson the second before great vision from Luke Thomas at scrum half allowed Fraser Brooks to chase a kick and score under the posts, with one further try making the half-time score 22-0. After a delay to allow an ambulance access to treat and injury (not serious as it transpired later, thankfully), the ref asked if we would be happy to shorten the game if it carried on in one-sided fashion. Having agreed that we would stop proceedings if we reached 30 points, Chris Dow finished the game in about the next minute, scoring once in the corner after Maidenhead stole an Esher lineout and then again under the posts after ripping the ball from a maul. Final score: Esher Reds 0 – 34 Maidenhead. The final game of the day was against the other Esher side – Esher “Blacks”, and the squad was flagging somewhat in the sunshine. Having said this, Maids got off to a bright start, with Leo Smith, rested after an early knock, rounding off some great handling by the backs, Fraser Brooks converting. Esher bounced straight back, though, equalising very soon afterwards with a powerful run by their standout player. Unbowed by this setback, Maids scored once through Sam Maguire to make the score 12-7 and then again after a great scrummaging effort by the forwards produced quick ball for Leo Smith to gain a second. Duncan Jones added another and the lead was beginning to look commanding but Esher came back again to narrow the margin early in the second half with two tries. The “tackle of the tournament” followed soon after, with Maids’ Player of the Tournament Sam Balfour lining up a big onrushing forward and stopping him dead with a crunch that remarkably – though happily – caused no damage to players despite prompting groans from all spectators! This released ball that Leo Smith ran back almost the length of the pitch selling two fine dummies before unselfishly passing for Sam Maguire to score. Undeterred by the fact that the ref disallowed this for a “forward pass”, Sam went on to score two more dazzling tries, but perhaps the pick of the game was when Captain Duncan Jones, displaying a maturity beyond his years throughout the tournament, spotted Fraser Brooks out wide on the blind side for a restart, sent the kick in his direction and Fraser gathered to score. Final score: Esher Blacks 21 – 39 Maidenhead. The squad: |