Colts' Italian tour 2006

12th-16th April 2006

Colleferro U19 17 v Maidenhead Colts 31
Valcomino 10 v Maidenhead Colts 71

Maidenhead Colts took part in an eventful tour to the Lazio region of Italy over the Easter weekend. The tour had a low profile build up with the main worry prior to leaving on Wednesday being the size of the tour party – only 16 fit players were able to travel. The total party was 18 players, 5 coaches and parents and Lorna Kennard our hardworking physio. As it happened, the party only sustained one further injury with Lorna successfully patching up a number of players enabling them to play in both games.

All rugby supporters will have been heartened with the performance of the Italian National side in this year's 6 Nations tourney. Bottom position in no way reflected their performance, which must count as the best since their entry into the European International competition 5 years ago. The gradual improvement in the national side seems to be being reflected at club level where the game is growing not just in numbers of players but with new clubs starting up as well.

Thursday was the first match day so with an evening kick off a "light training session" was in order for late morning. Tour manager, David Standfast lead off a vanguard of joggers to the nearest park with the remainder setting off at a fast gentle stroll. Forty minutes of touch rugby reminded the party of the main reason for being in Italy. The handling looked sharp and precise and this was to be carried forward for the most part into the games. Following lunch, the team set out along the road to Naples for the first match against a well established Italian side – Colleferro, who are celebrating their 40^th year. Just because we had flown to Italy didn’t mean that we were away from M25 style traffic jams and a combination of accidents and the great Easter get away meant that we were late arriving. The kick off was delayed but it was Maidenhead who were quickest out of the blocks and some slick handling put Alex Cannon away on the left hand side for the first score within 3 minutes. Dave Hodgson converted.

The Italians' strength was in their much heavier and well drilled forwards. They started to use these to good effect and made excellent ground with a number of pick and drives and rolling mauls. Slightly against the run of play, Skipper Simon Standfast scored Maidenhead’s second try. This was quickly followed by the first of the 3 tries scored by Colleferro. Some slack marking in defence allowed the Colleferro full back too much room and this allowed him to sprint in from 40 meters. However Maidenhead hit back just before half time when from a scrum close to the line, Joe Thomas bull dozed his way through a number of tacklers to score a converted try. Joe was immense throughout the game and the experience of playing for the senior 2nds and latterly for the 1sts against Chinnor has added an even more physical element to his game (Sorry Liz!). Half time: Colleferro 5 Maidenhead 19.

The 2^nd half followed a similar pattern. The Italians continued to make progress through their pack and scored a couple of tries following big forward efforts. Maidenhead managed to keep two scores ahead through another try from Standfast who showed great strength to score from close range and then the best try of the match when a well timed pass put Cannon clear on halfway. Showing even greater pace than normal he weaved his way past a number of covering defenders to score in the corner. Hodgson had converted Standfast’s try which made the final score 31-17. Matt Wardle’s troublesome ankle took a further knock towards the end of the game, which ultimately kept him out of the second match – and then there were 15.

All agreed that this was a good performance, Colleferro were unbeaten in their league and, depending on who you talked to had 4 players with international experience. Maids' backs showed excellent form throughout and the pack, despite being considerably outweighed, used their experience and skill to successfully disrupt the Italians forward effort.

One aspect of rugby the Italians have really cottoned on to is the after match socialising and the team had a great couple of hours with their hosts in the clubhouse unsurprisingly called "the Club House". A note for the nutritionists amongst the readership: the after match nosh started with a mixed bean salady thing followed by two different types of pasta – not a deep fat fryer in sight.