Exeter Colts 41 v Maidenhead Colts 3
Sunday 3rd March 2007

Maidenhead Colts travelled to the magnificent Sandy Park stadium to play Exeter in the National Cup Plate on Saturday. It was always going to be tough encounter and simply looking at the scoreline of 41-6 you might think that Maids were well beaten by a better team on the day.

And we could make excuses and tell you about the depleted squad, including the players that had to pull out out the day beforehand and all the injuries we suffered on the day, but what the bare facts don't tell you is what a spirited team performance we saw in the second half.

With score at 34-6 at half-time heads could have gone down but instead we saw the opposite as Maids battled through the half with patched up players, several playing completely out of position, to give one of the best demonstrations of a team playing for pride that we have seen all season.

In the first half Exeter were quickly out of the blocks scoring within 5 mins before Maids could settle and two more tries gave them a lead of 17-0 after 20 mins. Then Dayne Ferrar led a revival with two well struck penalties. The recovery seemed to be further on the cards as Jimmy Mac broke clear and ran three quarters of the pitch before unfortunately the referee called him back.

Chris Adam then fell awkwardly and popped his shoulder putting him out of the game. With no other recognised scrum-half and only front rows on the bench, hooker Tom Morgan stepped in and gave a commendable performance for the rest of the match. That gave Peter Gull an opportunity to test his new skills as hooker.

To add to the injury woes Ferrar then broke his nose in a clash of heads. But stopping only for a few minutes for John Evans to stem the flow of blood Dayne set the tone for the rest of the match by playing on.

Then came the second half performance with captain Luke Knowles leading by example as usual.

However Ferrar eventually had to leave the field after a late tackle which gained the Exeter 10 a yellow card.

Our new Australian prop Andy Symth got a baptism of fire and commented afterwards on how English Colts rugby was a much higher standard than in Australia. Well we always knew that! Having made the trip from Birmingham prop Pat McSweeney moved to flanker as the merry go round continued.

Mike Skelton stepped in as 10 but the attrition continued as he took a nasty cut to the head, which afterwards needed stitches. John Evans once again came to the rescue with an excellent bandaged turban which allowed Mike to play on until the end of the match. Max Bishop also took a bang to head which left him dazed until well after the game.

Maids kept out Exeter until almost the end of the second half but the injuries eventually told as the hosts got their only score of the half to make it 41-6 at the finish.

Though the result was disappointing the team spirit and tenacity was great to watch. Something which continued well into Sunday morning as the squad sampled the Exeter nightlife.

Maids squad:
Chris Adam, Max Bishop, Dayne Ferrar, Peter Gull, James Henley, Andy Hogan, Chris Holden, Luke Knowles, Liam Lynch, Jimmy Makurumure, Pat McSweeney, Tom Morgan, Brin Munn, Chris Parrott, Michael Skelton, Andy Smyth, Gareth Whyte.