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Battling Bs Beaten by Bracknell
Bracknell U16As 26 v Maidenhead U16Bs 7 Sunday 13th December 2009 |
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This is a tale of four missed tackles which resulted in tries and the loss of the first U-16B league game. The fixture was always going to be a tough one, with Bracknell opting to enter their A squad into Division 2 of the Berkshire League and so it was vital that everyone available was in attendance and that Maids started brightly. Unfortunately, 2 players failed to show up, and Maidenhead started slowly, failing to deal with the kick off and being driven backwards. Maidenhead missed tackles after the ball came out of the resulting maul and Bracknell scored by the posts. The fly half kicked the conversion 7-0. Maidenhead immediately put themselves under pressure again by getting in front of the kicker at the restart, but then started to settle down. Big tackles from Tim Cronbach and Iain Whiteford repelled some Bracknell attacks and Maids began to get back into the game. Maids began to work the ball down field and camp in the Bracknell half. A flowing move down the right was stopped just short of the line. The forwards recycled the ball and the ball moved left down the line. Iain Whiteford took the inside pass to cross out on the left. Dominik Bart, returning from a lengthy injury lay off, converted – 7-7. Unfortunately Sam McCarthy injured his shoulder at the end of the first move and had to come off. Maidenhead then played with some continuity and fluency, marred by silly mistakes like “coming in from the side” and “handling in the ruck”, which relieved the pressure on Bracknell. It was all square at half time. The second half started just as the first had done – missed tackles let in the full back under the posts. The fly half again kicked the conversion – 14-7. Maidenhead immediately responded. The game got a bit feisty. Nic Jones took a scrum against the head. Jacob Sanders broke through the first line of defence on the blind side and offloaded to Stevie Carn who was thrown into touch just short of the line. Maidenhead stole the Bracknell line out and drove for the line. Chris Dow was adjudged to have been held up. Bracknell broke away and Maidenhead were saved by a magnificent tap tackle from Matt Becksmith. Bracknell came again and missed tackles on the fly half resulted in another score under the posts. It was again converted – 21-7. Maidenhead bounced back and took the game to Bracknell. Basic errors forced them back and the number of tackles that had been made seemed to be slowing the team down although team spirit remained commendably strong. Another missed tackle and Bracknell broke away to score again. This time it was away from the post and the conversion was missed – 26-7. From the restart, Bracknell ran the ball back at Maidenhead. From the resulting broken play, Will Thompson, just returned from injury, was laid out. With first-aiders on the pitch, the referee blew for time. Maidenhead
U16B: |