Match report courtesy of the

Saturday 27th January 2007

TALENT is a precious commodity in sport but as Maidenhead have discovered to their cost this season - it guarantees you nothing. A good crowd watched on, as a group of precociously gifted individuals were given a lesson in team rugby on Saturday as Maids were beaten 25-17 by Oxford Harlequins.

Maids should have won this game by half-time, but they blew a string of good scoring chances and then a 12-point second-half lead to dent their hopes of promotion from South West Division 1.

Quins had always looked dangerous and their willingness to run from anywhere meant they would always be a handful. But from the start Maids dominated territory and possession and they were denied a try after four minutes when a rolling maul was held up on the line.

But Maids were deservedly ahead after nine minutes when Stuart Mackay went over in the corner following great work from Max Willcocks and Jonny Hammond. Willcocks added the conversion to make it 7-0 and Maids continued to look dangerous as Simon Edwards fielded an exciting back-division bursting with pace, power and finishing ability. But in doing so, he sacrificed his only recognised goal-kicker - a decision that cost Maids 10 points and possibly the match.

But despite a flying start the game followed a familiar pattern as Maids failed to make their huge first-half superiority tell. Quins took what few opportunities they were given, to run. Their adventure was rewarded as they hit back with a rare attack, when Maids reacted slowly to a tap penalty and allowed the fleet-footed Peter Davis to switch play on the edge of the 22, glide past the Maids cover defence and slide in untouched for a brilliant individual score to make it 7-5.

Maids should have been further ahead a minute later, when the magnificent Wilcocks gave another demonstration of his immense strength, breaking from his own 22, only to be tackled 60 metres down the field when Quins flanker Matt Young was adjudged to have deliberately killed the ball and was sin binned for 10 minutes. Wilcocks missed the resulting penalty, but it didn't seem to affect the host's confidence, as they continued to pour forward. Mark Mueller¹s burst for the line was only held up by lion-hearted Quins defence, but Maids wouldn't be denied as Wilcocks¹ long miss pass was collected by Mackay who coasted across the line for his second try on the half-hour mark. This time the conversion was missed but Maids were 12-5 ahead at the break.

The game seemed to be all but over after 52 minutes, when Willcocks burst towards the line from a five metres scrum, and drew the final defender before nonchalantly flipping the ball backwards over his shoulder to the flying Dan Martin to make it 17-5.

Game over? No chance - it had just begun. For no apparent reason Maids switched off, suddenly they were missing tackles, and dropping passes and less then 60 seconds later they allowed Beau Wilson to ghost through three tackles and find Andy Noyce who cruised over the line to make in 17-10.

The game had changed and Quins were buoyed by a newfound confidence as they broke tackle after tackle. The visitors scored again three minutes later, after Maids had been reduced to 14 men after Mark Mueller was sin binned for dragging down a perfectly controlled rolling maul. Quins capitalised from the resulting five-metre scrum, Paddy Soaper touching down to make it 17-15.

A Davis penalty three minutes later put the visitors a point ahead, and Maids looked a shadow of the team they had been in the first period. Davis completed an amazing turnaround after 69 minutes when he added another converted try as he took advantage of poor defence from a scrum to run under the posts.

By the time Mueller returned to the fray the game was gone, and in truth Maids never looked like getting back into the game. This was a desperately disappointing result for Maids. They wasted good chances and eventually lost to a team with half their talent - but on the day, twice their fight.

Maidenhead: Martin (Plamus 63), Cripps, Wilcocks, Hammond, Mackay, Ruddick, Edwards, A Riley (Blackwell 4) Craig, Johnston, Gallina, Mueller, Lynch (Greene 38) Parkhouse, G Riley.