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U15s win in good spirit at Drifters Sunday 5th April 2009 Drifters
U15s 5 v Maidenhead U15s 27 |
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A last-minute friendly fixture played in good spirit ended with Maidenhead winning by five tries and a conversion to one try. Both sides were makeshift, with many boys away or on County duty. Several Maids were playing in unaccustomed positions. The ground was very hard and the sun very hot. Maybe as a result, the first seven minutes frankly produced nothing of note; maybe the end of term Saturday night parties and sleepovers were still telling on the players’ energy levels! First blood eventually went to Drifters, with a try by a forward trundling out of an otherwise aimless maul. Maidenhead’s chief coach on the day was heard to ask his players whether any one of them was proud of their work so far? The “hairdryer” obviously worked, because the workrate visibly increased, and Maids began to get on top. The forwards started to fight for the ball and the backs began to put some meaningful moves together. With 18 minutes gone, Leo Smith touched down, only for play to be called back for an earlier foot in touch. Maids scored from the resulting lineout anyway, Ross Dingwall finishing well on the right wing. By now Maids had started to run it from anywhere, with Fred Reid and Louis Basson prominent at 8 and 7, as if they play there every game. Sure enough it was LD who snaffled an overthrow at the back of a Drifters lineout, stood up the winger and skinned him to score in the corner. Two minutes later came the (not disallowed) try of the game. Drifters had a scrum six metres short of the Maidenhead line but lost the ball forward in a back row move. Playing the advantage Maids kicked into vacant space behind them and mugged the covering player. The ball went through twelve pairs of hands and ended up with Dingwall scoring his second try. Now it was party time. Drifters’ kickoff was caught by Tom Allen who ran powerfully forward before passing to Luke Thomas whose long pass found Smith, and a well-timed draw and pass gave Tom Eckles the room to outpace the cover and gallop in under the posts. Dan Shipton converted. Just before halftime, Basson scored another tailender special, cleaning up messy ball at the back of the lineout and sprinting around the despairing defenders. 27-5 at half time. Maybe it was another coach’s talking to or maybe it was a couple of substitutions but Drifters came out in the second half looking like another (rather older!) team. They started with vim and vigour up front and behind and began to put in some crunching tackles as well. Despite that they never really looked like scoring and the only score of the half would have been from a sublime scissors and swerve from Fraser Brooks had it not been ruled out because the defence was adjudged to have been hindered by the referee. 27-5 it remained, then. Maids’ Man of the Match was Mike Trevena, who suffered a bloody nose in the first half, and came back with a ferocious display of aggressive energy and well deserved the award. Squad: |