U12s at the Guildford Tournament

24th February 2008

Maidenhead U12s B fielded a squad of 18 for the Guildford 'B' team tournament. 5 games were played in a ten team league competition. The team was captained by Jake Nightingale. All players played in at least 4 games.

The first game encounter with Basingstoke saw the Maidenhead's prop Rhys Rolle drive over the Basingstoke line. The pack, led by Michael White pushed Basingstoke back to their own try line twice, leading directly to a try by 2nd row Callum Burston. Full back Matthew Price showed blistering pace but only centre Ruth Dow broke through the Basingstoke defensive line in the second half to produce the final try of the game. Final score 3-0.

In the second game Maidenhead dominated the scrums against home team Guildford, finally achieving a try against Guildford in the second half when Michael White worked ball over the line following a series of mauls. Unfortunately Guildford replied in the dying seconds when Maids allowed them a huge territorial advantage and then gave Guildford a penalty on the Maidenhead try line. Final score 1-1

Effingham and Leatherhead started brightly with their pack pushing well. Maidenhead responded by working the ball forward in successive phases and eventually inside centre Christopher Hudson burst through to score. Despite some terrific runs by Aaron Whetton and Ruth Dow the final score remained at 1-0.

Next up were local rivals Windsor. Ruth Dow started as scrum half, almost giving the first try to Windsor when she mis-timed her feed to the backs on the first scrum. She redeemed herself almost immediately by taking the ball over the Windsor try line when Maids won their very next scrum. After some terrific support play backs and forwards which left Maids camped in the Windsor's end for the second half of the match, Rhys Rolle put his head down and drove over the Windsor line to score the final try. Final score 2-0

The final match against Worthing saw Aaron Whetton, playing as outside centre, run around the pack who had placed Worthing under pressure by mauling deep into their territory, to score the first try. Callum Burston was unlucky not to score when his explosive attempt over the line was disallowed. In the second half Captain Jake Nightingale (playing scrum half) used the Maids scrummage deep in Worthing territory to find a defensive hole and ran through the Worthing defence to close the account for the day. Final score 2-1.

Maidenhead scored the same number of points as Sutton & Epsom and were awarded as runners up on count back.