U9As runners-up at the Tournament

Sunday 9th October 2011

Last Sunday saw Maidenhead Under 9 As and Bs attend our own festival at Braywick Park.

Whilst down in New Zealand, England were playing a dour brand of rugby, throwing dwarfs and jumping off boats, our boys restored the faith with a superb performance. Following the Windsor festival the previous weekend, we made a big step forward. Our tackling was fierce, ferocious and frightening at times and we started to move the ball away from contact and into space. Our boys played with heart and determination, doing themselves, their parents and the club proud.

Maidenhead As

For the As first up was Bracknell As and despite a passionate, hard-fought match we went down to a single try. The game could have gone either way and despite having the majority of possession we were unable to score any tries and lost 0-1.

Next up were Newbury and another superb performance saw us get the win 3-1, with a superb effort from forwards and back alike.

Bracknell's B team were next in line and yet again the boys put a wonderful performance in and despite the vast majority of possession ended up winning 1-0.

2 matches against our local rivals, Marlow and Henley followed. First up was Marlow and again in was a hard fought battle. Our boys showed real heart despite feeling the effects of the day, and even the majority of the possession we were unable to come out on top, Marlow winning 0-1.

Our final match was against Henley and somehow the boys dug deep to find a performance and in a fiercely competitive match we came out on top winning 1-0.

That result meant that Maidenhead As finished runners up overall, a wonderful reward for a great team performance.

Maidenhead Bs

The Maidenhead B-team started the tournament with a match against Newbury. Newbury played well, but Maidenhead were in good form, and won 6-2.

Next, Maidenhead played a Brighton A/B team. Brighton played fearsomely, and won a hard-fought game 3-0.

The Maidenhead team game out fighting for their next game against local rivals Marlow - in a nail-biting game, the two teams drew 1-1.

Henley always provide strong opposition, but Maidenhead beat them 3-1.

They played strongly in their final game, and were unlucky to lose 1-2 to a strong Bracknell side.

Maidenhead finished fourth in the group.

Zac Kennedy, Oliver Jones, Nathan Jeffries and Matthew Osborne demonstrated some powerful forward play. Ben Willis scored six tries, and Alfie Mifsud looked fearless, completing some fabulous tackles. The boys are all enjoying their first season of contact rugby. They have made a promising start to the season.