Farnham Royal 0 v Maidenhead 3rds 11
Saturday 27th January 2007

It was Bill Shankly who said “if they canna score they canna beat us”. NB : it sounds better spoken in a Scots accent! It was a beautiful afternoon, no wind, grassy pitch, ideal for running rugby but neither side were having any of that flashy stuff. This was 10 man rugby at it’s most attritional, and Maidenhead never took a backward step, and it won them the game.

In the first few minutes Maidenhead drove deep into the opposition’s half with a series of pick and drives which resulted in the inevitable penalty which was kicked by Dave Goodman. Three nil up. Good start.

Unfortunately this was followed by quite a long period of Farnham forward pressure, but the defence never faltered. The shape of things to come, perhaps? Then a perfect scoring opportunity – forwards drive towards their opponents 22 metre line, quick ball, down the line, one man overlap, try inevitable as it is Lester Martin who has the overlap, poor pass, ball goes down, no score. Oh dear!

The game got really scrappy then with neither sets of forwards committing enough players to the rucks and mauls and when they did body positions were poor. Then out of nowhere a Maidenhead score, the only try of the match. The loose forwards got well over the gain line and in numbers until finally Nick London barrelled his way over the line. With the conversion missed Maidenhead were now 8 nil up. The rest of the half was played mainly in Maidenhead’s half and between the two sets of forwards as both sides seem to have decided that their backs weren’t going to score so they would have to do it for them. But the pressure was nearly all on Maidenhead who had to clear their line a number of times. The only real scare for Maidenhead came just before half time when Farnham were awarded a penalty in a very kickable position but failed to convert it.

At the start of the second half it looked as though the Maidenhead pack were really going to get the upper hand as the front row were in complete command. Eventually a scrum in front of the posts on the 22 metre line, Maidenhead put-in, ball lost. Very sloppy. Then a long period of scrappy play on or around the half-way line caused mainly by the referee blowing his whistle at every breakdown. There was one brief period of pressure from Maidenhead when they had a penalty on the 22, a line out on the 5 metre line and a scrum on the 22 all in quick succession but it wasn’t long before the play was at the other end and Maidenhead were desperately defending their line. If the score had gone to 8-7 at that point goodness knows what the final score would have been. But the defence was as steady as a rock and it was going to need to be as tempers were beginning to fray. But then relief! A period of Maidenhead pressure yielded a penalty in front of the posts, but outside the 22. A very important kick as, if it had gone over, Farnham would have needed two tries one of them converted, all in the last 10 minutes, and for the previous 70 minutes they had never looked like beating the Maidenhead defence once let alone twice. Dave Goodman, again! Slotted it over.

Game over? Well not quite! For the last 10 minutes Farnham were camped in the Maidenhead 22, got penalty after penalty, but couldn’t score. Why? Firstly, Maidenhead’s defence was titanic, and secondly because nearly every Farnham penalty, which they decided to run, was taken by one of their forwards who ran straight at the Maidenhead pack on his own. Not very clever, particularly when he got tackled by two or three very determined opponents. Bearing in mind that Farnham hadn’t been beaten all season this was a very satisfying win, built on forward power and steely determination.

Maidenhead man of the match? For your reporter, it should be the whole team, but The Car Clinic man of the match went to Myke Parrott. WELL DONE TO THE WHOLE TEAM!

Written by David Anthony