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U14s beat Twickenham Twickenham
U14s 10 v Maidenhead U14s 27 |
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The Under 14s maintained their good form with a deserved win over a strong, resolute Twickenham side in this away friendly. It was the first time the two sides had met and the opening 10 minutes was a wary battle of attrition fought between the 10 metre lines. This was not an easy game by any means but by playing as a unit, with the Forwards and Backs linking well together, the boys wore down their opponents and still had plenty of gas in the tank at the final whistle. Like Ruislip in their previous friendly, Twickenham had a strong, well-organised pack that tended to dominate the mauls and breakdowns. But Maids exploited this by drawing in the opposition Forwards to give the Backs the chance to spread the ball about and put Twickenham’s backline under pressure. The tactic paid off, despite too many unforced errors and lapses in the tackles early on. Maids gradually began to dominate possession and forced Twickenham to defend inside their 22-metre line. Michael Habgood caught a Twickenham clearance to start the move that ended with Charlie Wickham-Smith crashing through to open the scoring in the right hand corner. Twickenham rucked well and Maids could have saved themselves a lot of bother by not going in to contact quite so often. However, the boys’ offloads and passing improved as the match progressed and they began to string together some excellent, flowing moves. One of the best of which resulted in a superb team try. Ben Pritchard, James Parrott and Paul Sayers worked the ball wide on the left. Thomas Simpson came inside and switched play to the right to put Elliott Reid into space and he stormed 25 metres to the posts, to give Paul Sayers one of his easier conversions. Lapses in concentration and missed tackles allowed Twickenham to pull a try back going in to the break. Unfortunately, Thomas Simpson had to be taken off with a suspected broken wrist at half-time. Sensing they could get back into the game, Twickenham came out strongest for the second period and with a typical driving maul gained ground for one of their pacey Backs to finish off with a try. With the score at 12.10, the next points were going to be crucial. Rather than buckle under the pressure, Maids showed good character and resolve, taking the game to Twickenham with quick hands and good running from Tristan Cadden, TJ Hudson and David Walker and resolute defending from Forwards Michael James, Alex Jones. Another try from Charlie Wickham-Smith gave the team breathing space. George Kirk and Mitch Burns linked well out wide while Matt Morgan and Morgan Davies put together good passing moves at speed. From a scrum five metres out, Paul Sayers found a gap on the blind side to touch down in the corner. Paul Sweeney’s intercepting tackle and Connor Murphy’s determined drives pegged back Twickenham. A strong kick upfield by Ben Pritchard set up the final try of the match as the captain surged forward to tackle his man and Elliott Reid was quickest to the break down. He popped the ball to Mitch Burns whose burst of speed took him clear and over the line in the corner. At 27.10 there was no way back in to the game for the hosts who couldn’t match Maids’ work rate and pace. Tries: Conversions: |
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