U16A unstring Tring

Maidenhead U16As 38 v Tring U16s 5

Sunday 4th October 2009

After what seemed a long wait to get under way, Berkshire County Champions Maidenhead U16A finally opened their competitive season with a friendly match against Tring, who play this season in the Herts & Middx Youth League Division 2 (of 5 Divisions, 37 sides in all).  The result was a convincing 6 tries to one victory, a big morale booster before the MRFC Youth Tournament next week.

The sere and solid surface of Braywick's pitch 4 was well-suited for running rugby, but also rewarded smart tactical kicking, with both skills on show in the first half.  Six minutes of feeling each other out up front started to produce some quality ball for Maidenhead.  After a couple of simple line moves sucked the Tring fullback into a ruck, Tom Eckles kicked into the empty space behind and Daniel Andrews-Jones raced up to open the scoring.  The Gas is Back.  Will Thompson popped over the conversion.

Four minutes later Eckles scored himself in the first of two perfect training ground executions.  Channel one ball from a scrum at 10m, just to the right of centre.  Clean pass to Thompson at fly half, noisy dummy runners 12 and 13 on an inward line, big pass behind them to blind side Eckles at top speed.  Tom draws the right winger and passes to Duncan Jones in from fullback, still with space to spare.  Jones makes ground to within 15m, fixes the isolated fullback and chooses Eckles inside rather than Anderson outside.  Either would have scored.  It's a move learned last season from Ricky Khan, apparently, and a thing of great beauty when it works like this.  Thompson chips for the extra 2.

Next score is on page 42 of Section 13(a) of the Operations Manual for High Number Shirts, Variation xii.  It's called get DAJ to catch a short pass and cut a line at pace.  One to beat.  Five more points.  Seven when Thompson steps up.

Now came two demonstrations of how to play the kicking game, and of how not to.  Tring put up a high one but Jones made the catch at a run, moved to the right, cleared the first chase and fed Louis Basson.  Louis's kick was precise, behind the line defence but short of the cover.  Regulation crazy rugby ball bounce sewed confusion, chasers DAJ, Eckles and Leo Smith traded passes and Eckles looped round to take a scoring ball.

From the kickoff, Maidenhead secured the ball and found Smith in his 22.  His clearing kick landed at halfway and bobbled on across the hard ground up to Tring's 22 where only the crazy bounce (see above) prevented first DAJ and then Eckles picking up and scoring.  A Tring defender was luckier but then aimed a panicky clearance kick upfield.  A sprinting Jacob Sanders caught the kick on the full above his head and raced in to touch down under the posts.  Thompson was sure his kick was good but the touch judges disagreed.  31-0 at the turnaround and the home side were very much worth it.

Perhaps inevitably, Maidenhead started the second half with less precision and made a few errors, while Tring regrouped and came out with great determination.  The Maids' defensive drills were tested instead of their attacking moves, and the test was passed in style until a scrappy scrum ball was fly-kicked through and dived on for a Tring try with 7 minutes remaining.

The last word was to be Maidenhead's however, with a second try for Sanders from a short range number 8 pickup, converted by birthday boy Mike Winter, bringing the final score to 38-5.

Winter, by the way, was simply awesome.  Slashing tackles, strong clearouts and destructive ball carrying all afternoon.  Every player on the day had a good game but one or two others deserve special mention.  Sam Balfour's strength and workrate two rows further forward than usual, were impressive.  Ben Scolari showed that he can mix it in the As as well as the Bs, as did Kaya Baxter.  And Nic Jones carried half the Tring pack on a 20 metre drive in the last minutes of the game.  All the backs showed the value of playing together and of paying attention in training. 

It is never certain what you will face in age group rugby but this side, missing many sure starters you might think, showed just how good they can be this season. 

Squad:  Balfour, N Jones, Hine, Hull, Baxter, Sanders, Reid, Winter, Scolari, Basson, Thomas, D Jones, Thompson, Anderson, Smith (captain), Andrews-Jones, Eckles, Becksmith.