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U14s edge Aylesbury Maidenhead U14s 24 v Aylesbury
U14s 22 |
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Missing over half the age group through school trips and holidays, Maids took a composite A and B squad to take on Aylesbury in a friendly fixture on Sunday, and just edged victory by the margin of one conversion. The Maids' backs looked the more dangerous, but could not get enough ball, as the Aylesbury forwards dominated the set piece despite the best efforts of Mike Trevena and Nic Jones in particular. Initially, though, Aylesbury could do little with the ball and it was Maids who opened the scoring when Alex Avery took a pop pass from Chris Dow (making a very welcome return after a nasty knee injury) to crash over in the corner. A second try followed soon afterwards, as Nic Jones took advantage of defensive disarray to touch down after great interplay between Chris Dow and George Thomas. Aylesbury strengthened their side, most notably with the introduction of their very large and talented (and bearded!) Number 8, and suddenly they were making possession tell, while Maids fell off tackles and the home side were on the scoresheet. A rare piece of clean possession saw a sweet backs move put Daniel Andrews-Jones straight through to score from the 10 metre line, with Fraser Brooks converting, but Aylesbury came back again with another try of their own to keep things tight. Andrews-Jones looked to have made things safe with another long range strike, this time with what would transpire to be the vital conversion from Will Thompson, but the big Number 8 came back again with a further try and the very determined Aylesbury side were awarded a final try in the corner when the ref adjudged that all passes had gone backwards. Fortunately Maids’ kicking had been somewhat better than Aylesbury’s, and the margin of 2 points was enough to secure victory. It was a great game played with good spirit and a good opportunity to see players unused to playing together in the same squad. Scorers: Alex Avery,
Nic Jones, Daniel Andrews-Jones (2). The squad: Josh Edney, Nic Jones, Mark Hine, Tim Cronbach, Mike Trevena, Dom Bart, Tyler Bello, Alex Avery, Ross Dingwall, Steve Carn, Luke Thomas, LD Basson, Will Thompson, Fraser Brooks, Daniel Shipton, Daniel Andrews-Jones, Markus Olivier, Thomas Eckles, Niall Collins, Dhruv Surya, George Thomas, Chris Dow |