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U16s show champions are never beaten Maidenhead
U16s 24 v Newbury U16s 14 Sunday 7th March 2010 |
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In a comeback worthy of Peter Mandelson, Maidenhead U16s overturned a 14 point deficit against Berkshire Youth League title rivals Newbury with a display of character and determination. (For the boys, Peter Mandelson is a politician who blah, blah, blah, whatever). Newbury were the last (only) team to beat this Maids' side in County league competition, three years ago now. The two sides were clearly nervous and both spent the first exchanges feeling their way into the game. Maids soon established superiority in the set scrum, going forwards on both put-ins, but Newbury looked more confident in the lineout, catching and controlling their own ball well. The Newbury backs showed ambition and fluency and Maidenhead could not get their own ball wide fast enough to beat the onrushing blue defence. Smart positional kicking did bring Maids within range and they started to threaten but a well-anticipated interception allowed the visitors’ speedy winger to run 80 metres for a converted score under the posts with just 19 minutes on the clock. Maidenhead are not used to going behind and looked shocked. In truth their game went to pieces for a while and Newbury looked very likely to go further ahead with smooth phases and confident handling. Nonetheless, half time came with no more scoring and the home side breathed a sigh of relief. Maids started the second half furiously, driving down to the Newbury line only to be adjudged held up short. Newbury ran the ball from their line up to halfway and then stole a lineout and pressed up to the 22. More lineout ball and an outside break at fly half through weak tackling gave the visitors a 14 point lead with 25 minutes remaining. The Blues were rampant, the Champions looked down and out. Funny thing, though, Maidenhead’s pack still had the nudge in the scrum and were now starting to mess up Newbury’s lineout and to compete harder at the breakdown. A little bit of go forward and the ball starts to go wide with more options, the Blues defence now on the back foot, rather than in front of it. Scrum 10m from the tryline on the right, channel one, quick flat ball Thomas to Smith, everybody watching MacSwan on the crash and ANDREWS-JONES THROUGH THE GAP, past the fullback and over the line. Simple, precise and devastating. Dominik Bart converts and is it game on? Newbury woke up and fought back, forwards and backs working together up the field. Then came maybe the turning point of the match. A Maidenhead clearance charged down at the 22, the ball bounced straight back under the posts and the footrace to touch down was barely won by fullback Tom Eckles. Another 7 points conceded then and surely the game would have been up. Instead, a lengthy delay while a groggy Eckles received treatment was followed by a final 8 minutes of simply irresistible Maidenhead pressure. Straight from the 22 dropout restart, Maidenhead won a penalty and kicked deep to the corner. The drive from the lineout saw Bart convinced he had scored but the unsighted ref could only call held up. Picking up at the base, Bart went left and, he thought, scored “again”. No-one else could be sure, so held up. Scrum again, Thomas feints to the blindside, passes open, Smith goes to ground centimetres short, Mike Winter dives close, ball comes back; Mike Trevena rampages forward, held and driven back, Bart picks up and burrows over for his “hat-trick”, at last in clear view and this time awarded. Bart’s own conversion levels the game at 14 all with 2 minutes of normal time remaining. The home crowd is screaming, belief flows back. The visiting supporters look nervous and go quiet. On the field, it was Newbury’s turn to look shocked. Maids came at them in waves, driving into rucks now and forcing errors. Forwards who had looked off the pace in the first half suddenly upped their effort and started to dominate the breakdown. Luke Thomas revelled in the platform and was able to give good quick service outside. Newbury’s pack looked shot, puffing to the play and leaning on for a breather while Maids’ fitness paid dividends. With normal time up a weak clearance was fielded by Eckles around 30m out. Seeing the unbalanced chase he raced right, away from the defending backline, drew two forward defenders to him before offloading to Smith in space, who had time to celebrate before making the try safe. The home crowd drowned out the traffic on Braywick Road. A yellow card for a Newbury forward really came too late to make much difference but Maidenhead did seal the bonus point with a last play try by MacSwan with the visitors reeling under the onslaught and wondering just exactly what they had done to deserve the defeat. In truth they had given everything in an entertaining game and were better than the final score would suggest. Maids go top of the table but their rivals have a game in hand so it looks like the competition will go down to the final round this year. See Gallery for match photos Squad: |