Nine try romp for U14Bs against Ruislip

Maidenhead U14Bs 59 v Ruislip U14Bs 5
13th January 2008

Stung by a poor opening, Maidenhead U14 Bs played probably their best ever game on Sunday. A neutral observer might have anticipated a rout when they saw Ruislip’s pacy right-winger run through Maidenhead’s weak defence for a soft try after three minutes. Well, a rout it certainly was, but it was Ruislip routed by magnificent Maids.

Less than a minute after that score, the Ruislip defence were caught cold as Sam Maguire ran across their 22 and scorched around the last defender to touch down. The two forward packs then spent the next period trading carries and tackles with Maidenhead gradually gaining the upper hand, Simon Crosby and Jacob Sanders leading the way. Eventually Tyler Bello forced his way over from short range for his first try for the club. It will certainly not be his last and he had a standout all round game. That try seemed to help Maids relax and their rugby began to flow. Jason Bates gathered the restart, fed Shiv Khindria and his well timed pass set Maguire racing down the right wing to score again. Then came the pick of the tries. Steve Carn put into a scrum 20 metres out, picked up clean channel one ball and put a beautifully disguised chip over the onrushing Ruislip defence. Khindria chased through to catch on the bounce and score.

The second half restart brought Maguire his hat trick after a textbook regather, drive, ruck and screen by the forwards, followed by quick hands down the line to the right. A Number Eight pickup try for Sanders, a second for Khindria after an exciting counterattack from a long clearance kick, and a storming right wing run by Tim “Chabal” Cronbach, brought up the half century. The final score, inevitably, came as Maguire outpaced the defence again and ran in from 60 metres after good interplay between Druv Suriya and Ian Whiteford created the opening. Whiteford converted 7 of the 9 tries, quite an achievement in a cold, blustery wind.

To their great credit, Ruislip never gave up; never stopped tackling or covering, always tried to attack when they could. But in the end they had no answer to the teamwork, technique and disciplined aggression of Maids’ forwards, nor to the pace and flair of the backs. It was truly a great performance. B team? Only if B is for Barbarian.