U15 Bulls' hard fought victory at Drifters

Sunday 8th March 2009

Drifters U15s 12 v Maidenhead U15 Bulls 15

Maidenhead Bulls continued their unbeaten season with a hard fought victory at Drifters. On a bright but cold morning both teams ensured that the first few minutes of the match were tight and tough with some excellent tackles and little territory being gained by either side.

Maidenhead were the first to open the game up with some good team running rugby from the backs following excellent work from a steady Maidenhead pack. A good break from centre Fraser Brooks in midfield saw Maidenhead advance into the Drifters half. Brooks was tackled well but good rucking from Maidenhead freed ball for Bryn Evans to charge the defence. Unfortunately a tough tackle on Bryn ended his game but from the resulting penalty, Iain Whiteford opened the scoring with an excellent kick from distance.

Maidenhead then started to control the game and play the team rugby that has been the hallmark of their season. A line out inside the Drifters 22 provided the Maidenhead pack with the opportunity they needed, a great catch and drive and then off-load from the Maidenhead No 8 Jacob Sanders with the support of the pack allowed Ed Kaye to burrow through and score a classic (Leicester Tigers style) try which showed that all the practice at training was worthwhile. Iain Whiteford made the score 0 - 10 with a successful conversion.

Drifters were not going to lie down and playing against the wind and with some powerful running and tactical kicking from their backs they forced Maidenhead into some errors and with their winger withstanding several Maidenhead tackles after a break down the wing, scored a well deserved try in the corner which was not converted.

The half time whistle blew with the score 5 - 10 and both teams knew they had wasted opportunities to move the ball out to their wings and capitalise on blustery conditions.

Maidenhead made some changes in the second half to ensure that all of their 21 man squad had match time . Flanker Ben Scolari was a man on a mission and along with prop Ed Kaye made some excellent advances allowing the back line space to move the ball, good penetrating movements from Shiv Khindria , Frazer Brooks and Greg McHugh should have resulted in more points especially as Maidenhead were playing with the wind, but it was a powerful run from Tim Cronbach playing second row which allowed Maidenhead to extend their lead to 5-15 . Try not converted.

Drifters continued to pressurise Maidenhead and pinned them into their 22 for the last quarter although there was some good defending, indecision amongst the backs by not clearing their lines and some mediocre tackling allowed Drifters to come back into the game with a converted try in front of the posts, taking the score to 12 - 15.

With only a minute left of the game, the team refocused their efforts and ensured that they went back to basics and held their position . The final whistle blew and Maidenhead deserved the victory which was again based on a great team effort against a good Drifters side.

Squad:
Ed Kaye (C), Callum Hull, Blake Nicol, Tim Cronbach, Iain Whiteford, Simon Crosbie, Jacob Sanders, Bryn Evans, Ben Scolari, Aran Dolan, Josh Edney, Shiv Khindria, Fraser Brooks, Dhruv Surya, Sam McCarthy, Greg McHugh, Scott Gillan, Niall Collins, James Hibberdine, Steve Carn, George Thomas.