U14s' strength in depth and width

Maidenhead U14Bs 54 v Redingensians U14Bs 0
20th January 2008

The scoreline did not flatter Maids U14Bs here at Braywick today. Every try was 100% earned and worked for. Simon Crosbie scored a hat trick, Tyler Bello two, Jacob Sanders, Sam McCarthy and Ian Whiteford one each. 5 conversions for Whiteford and two for Steve Carn iced the doughnut.

The home side kept the ball in hand and ran at the opposition at every opportunity. Redingensians had no answer.

Crosbie’s tries were classics of the backrower’s art; each averaging around 120cm of ground gained. For the first, he picked up the ball after Jacob Sanders had grounded just short. The second came as a 5 metre scrum broke up after an heroic Maids shove. The third was a classic in-goal loose ball touchdown. Any No.7 will tell you that you have to be there to score tries like this and that’s where Crosbie was, everywhere.

Bello’s brace were rumbustious tackle-breaking rumbles from five metres out deep in the second half. Sanders scored a relatively free-running try from around 15 metres out after a series of forward drives sucked in the defence. As for the backs, McCarthy finished off a quick passing move from a 5m scrum against the head and Whiteford’s support running was rewarded at the end of a sweeping 60 metre move featuring Max O’Connor, Josh Edney, Shiv Khindria and Niall Collins. Edney had a storming game and for once resisted the temptation to kick from hand, instead beginning to use his running power as well as his footballing skills.

To be fair to Redingensians it must be said that, while Maids were able to use 7 substitutes without really weakening their team, the visitors had only 15 players available and, due to an injury, even borrowed a Maids sub for the second half (Daniel Shipton, recently joined from Drifters, who had a couple of dangerous runs on the wing and looks a great prospect).

It is also worth noting that the Maids boys were not noticeably smaller than their opponents, and that they were noticeably fitter and more mobile. It is a pity that there is no second string competition for the B team to test themselves against. Many of these players would challenge for A team places in any other Berkshire League U14 side.