|
U14s win Berkshire Youth league with one match in hand Berkshire
League Sunday 19th April 2009 |
|||
 |
|||
|
On Sunday morning Maidenhead U14s clinched the Berkshire Youth League title following a thrilling match against a resolute and worthy Reading team. Maidenhead won the game 45 - 5 and secured the all important bonus point to put them into an unassailable position with their final match against Reading Abbey still to play this Friday evening. However like many of the games this season the score does not tell the full story and certainly does not reflect the excellent performance put in by the Reading players. The Reading forwards were strong, well drilled and competed fiercely for the ball all game. Equally spirited were the Reading back line who tackled well to stop many Maidenhead attacks on the gain line, or before the ball could be off loaded to the ever present support players. Despite this great endeavour by Reading, the Maidenhead pack were able to secure good 1st phase ball and worked hard all day to recycle the ball in the loose. This platform of possession gave the outstanding Maidenhead backs plenty of ball to run through their repertoire of moves and score some scintillating tries. No 8 Marcus Bateson opened the scoring after 5 minutes following a good sequence of narrow channel pick and drives by the forwards. Kerins opened his account on 10 minutes with a long range attack from deep, beating the cover defence with pure pace. Oli Wilson scored 5 minutes later with one of his trademark bulldozing runs through multiple defenders. However the best try of the match came on the 22 minute mark when Oli Wilson changed the point of attack to put Kerins through on a sublime inside ball to completely wrong foot the defence and run in under the posts. Kerins kicked two conversions to make the half-time score 24 – 0. Right wing Adam Piper had an excellent but bruising first half, being on the receiving end of some of the most committed tackling by the Reading defence. Big Jon Pomroy took his place for the second half and instantly made an impact, handing off three Reading players to score a powerful try down the right wing. He repeated this 5 minutes later with a similar, albeit shorter range effort to score again down the right hand side. On the half hour mark Frank O’Keefe replaced Lewis Wilkins at blind side flanker and like Pomroy made an instant impact off the bench. O’Keefe scavenged a loose ball in open play and showed his strength and pace to run in from 30m out. Kerins converted 3 of the 4 second half tries to put the score at 45 – 0 with 15 minutes to go. To their huge credit Reading never eased off the pressure and scored their own hard fought and well deserved forward try after 42 minutes. The tempo of the game increased even further then with both teams throwing everything into the final 8 minutes. This provided a fantastic and highly competitive end to the match, with both sets of coaches justifiably proud of their players. Maidenhead Man of The Match was Oli Wilson who had an inspired game at full back, both in attack and defence. Maidenhead u14’s look forward to welcoming Reading Abbey to Braywick on Friday evening for the last league match of the season. Team: Ollie Wilson, Adam Piper, Colin Kerins (capt), Bradley Wright, Emi Repetto, Jonny Garius, Jack Hill, Cameron Avery, Andrew McGregor, George Dutton, Max Fishwick, Bertie Kennedy, Lewis Wilkins, Matt Balmer, Marcus Bateson. Replacements: Jonathan Pomroy, Frank O'Keeffe. Tries: Kerins 2, Pomroy 2, Bateson, O'Keeffe, Wilson. Conversions: Kerins 5 John
Wanklyn |