Match report courtesy of the

Saturday 1st March 2008

Maidenhead were not awful and Bracknell were not brilliant, but the difference between the teams was enough for the visitors to succumb to an embarrassing 59-point thrashing at Lily Hill Park on Saturday.

It was a clash which always threatened to be the one to put the Maids disappointing season into context, and so it proved. There was just one point between the teams at Braywick in September, with the visitors finishing with their noses in front. But since then the two teams have gone their separate ways in the league with leaders Bracknell in a head-to-head bun fight with Chinnor, while Maids have back-pedalled and are now in a tooth-and-claw relegation scrap.

But initially, this was not always obvious on Saturday as, with 33 minutes on the clock, the score was 0-0 and Maids, playing into the wind, were knocking the promotion-hopefuls off their stride. Although Maids were limited to counter-attacks, in the circumstances, they were frustrating the hosts which was showing in their rushed play and the four-letter outbursts from their coach, former England international, Chris Sheasby.

However, with the half-time break in sight, Oli Jones touched down after Maids' embattled defence finally caved in. Five minutes later Rudal Aiono was the scorer of try No.2 after a successful catch and drive from a lineout. With two conversions and a penalty on the whistle, Ben Nowak ensured Bracknell went into the break 17-0 to the good. The omens were not good for Maids, who thanks to yellow cards for Mark Mueller and Roko Babich were temporarily down to 13 men and looking down the barrell.

Unfortunately for them, Bracknell gave them both barrels after the break as their heavier forwards won and hung on to possession, and their confident free-running backs found the soft underbelly of Maids midfield defending. Forty-seven points and seven tries conceded was the result of a half Maids will want to forget. Their lack of confidence, plus increasingly tired bodies and lethargic minds were brutally exposed.

However, there were some positives. Maids grabbed a try for themselves, one of the best of the match, when Warren Abrahams joined the line, glided through numerous tackles to set up Simon Cripps on the win who touched down in the corner to make the score 24-5.

In addition, because of the unavailability of Gareth Edwards and an injury to Mark Ruddick, Maids went with a half-back combination of Simon Carter and James MacDonald - both of whom proved to be two of their best players on a testing day for the visitors.

Bracknell:
Steenberg, Shears, Jones, Nowak, Budge, Manupenu, Fafydd, Mirza, Shelton, Manea, Barry, Borcherds, Leishman, Aiono, Blankley. Subs: Kamya, Loveli, Hill.

Maidenhead:
Abrahams, Cripps, Hammond, Swadling, Mackay, MacDonald, Carter, O¹Byrne, Barber, Hoskins, Gallina, Mueller, Babich, Parkhouse, Riley. Subs: Greene, Knox, Arends.