Maidenhead Colts 24 v London Welsh Colts 7
Sunday 18th September 2005

Maidenhead Colts opened their 15-a-side season with a splendid 24-7 win over a giant London Welsh team at Braywick. Both clubs have a raft of players at their disposal (though Maids are keen to recruit front row forwards) and as a result, both teams decided to give all their squad a run in a match that was split into four quarters.

The Welsh fielded an enormous pack and appeared well-organised and highly-motivated and after Maids has thrown away two glorious chances in the first minute, London Welsh scored a converted try to lead 7-0 with danger signals already showing.

However, Maids knuckled down and despite the unfamiliarity of so many of the combinations, they gave a performance which delighted the coaches. "We gave 28 players time on the field and they have given us the best problem, because they all staked a claim," said head coach Gordon Macdonald afterwards.

Dayne Ferrar, who was a little off-beam with his kicking, had a superb match at fly-half for Maids, with a high tackle count and some excellent passing. Skipper Simon Standfast also stood out as did Alex Cannon, whose pace was a danger throughout. Ryan Christian set the tone with one thumping tackle, Will Grant again showed massive improvement on the wing and Chris Adam mixed up his game expertly at scrum-half.

In the forwards, Karl Kempton, making a switch to the back row from the pack, and Joe Thomas stood out but the pack as a whole played well to gain the upper hand throughout over their bigger opponents. James Emanuel was an aggravation to the Welsh throughout with his power at close quarters. Yet in the final analysis It was hard to single out any player in a performance which augured well for the new season.

Thomas opened the scoring after a clean catch by Drew Jones in the line-out and a definitive forward drive. Cannon scored the second, expertly finishing off the move of the match after Andy Hogan had set the line moving smartly, Chris Parrott scored after Maids had counter-attacked with a stray kick and Christian scored down the right wing to complete the scoring. Ferrar and Chris Richardson kicked a conversion each.

Maids open their Oxon, Berks and Bucks League campaign with an away match at Oxford on Sunday.