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U14s triumphant at Tadley Tadley U14s 0 v Maidenhead
U14s 84 |
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Maidenhead Under 14s maintained their lead at the top of the Berkshire League with a resounding win away at Tadley, scoring 84 unanswered points. In truth, the score could have been even higher but for some uncharacteristic handling errors and the fact that the Maids forwards slipped into a slugging match with the bigger Tadley pack for a long period in the first half. The win was convincing enough, however, and the character and temperament of the Tadley squad did not deserve any greater humiliation. 14 tries in all were scored, by 10 different scorers. Man of the Match Sam Maguire scored 4 of these, and notched up a personal total of 34 points. Luke Thomas, Michael Trevena and Calum O’Flaherty scored their first tries of the season for Maids, as did Daniel Shipton on his debut for the League squad. Laurence MacSwan opened the scoring after Alex Avery fielded an attempted clearance kick from the Tadley full back and some neat handling sent the centre on his way. His centre partner Daniel Andrews-Jones joined him on the score sheet shortly afterwards as winger Thomas Eckles caught the re-start, the forwards drove it on and then released quick ball for Daniel’s pace to take him through the defence and under the posts to make the conversion straightforward. Fresh from his successful conversion, full back Sam Maguire caught another attempted clearance from his opposite number and an extraordinary jinking run put him straight through under the posts to earn himself another conversion. Perhaps upset that the backs seemed to be scoring at will, the forwards then got scrappy and a poor period of play ensued, with what ball there was emerging untidily and causing errors where simple handling was required. Eventually 2nd row Fred Reid remembered that he can also play in the backs and galloped up the wing to score. Things now began to improve, and quick ball gave Maguire his second try, whilst Luke Thomas did well to take a reflex catch of a poor Tadley kick and score to round off the half. With victory looking certain and the important bonus point secured, numerous changes were made at half time, and the fresh players set about making their impression on the game and the score sheet. With the exception of kick off receipts, virtually the whole second period was played in the Tadley half, and the next try came after a fine break from Dominik Bart saw wing Markus Olivier in support and too quick for the defence. Shortly afterwards Sam Maguire, scenting a hat trick, held on just a moment too long but Laurence MacSwan arrived in support to score his second. A fine run from Daniel Andrews-Jones was stopped just short as he cut in to head for the posts rather than the corner (too much consideration for the kicker!). LD Basson, excellent throughout the second half (despite being denied protection by his back row) made a searing “Matt Dawson-esque” break through about 6 defenders before feeding Daniel Shipton to score on his debut, and loud cheers greeted Sam Maguire’s hat trick which followed moments later after a break from skipper Alex Avery. (Loud groans could be heard from Sam’s father, whose brief delight when the bar appeared to be shut after the game was happily short-lived!). Tim Cronbach on his debut caught clean ball in the line out which lead to a forward drive towards the line, and following an ensuing scrum Michael Trevena made a classic forward’s run (of about 3 metres) to score his first try of the season – just reward for his best game of the season. Another debutant, Tyler Bello, had a powerful game and was next seen once more driving into contact, was joined by his colleagues in a driving maul that had been worked on before the game, and eventually Calum O’Flaherty span off with the ball to score from the 22. There was just time for Sam Maguire to claim his 4th of the day after a fabulous run from Sam Balfour, hitting the line at pace from deep and carving straight through the defence before putting his namesake clear, and then, as the ref allowed an unduly generous or sadistic amount of injury time, depending on your perspective, Alex Avery rounded off the match with a trademark number 8 pick up and stroll over. Maguire, of course, converted. The squad: Scorers: |