Harwell 48 v Maidenhead 3rds 6
Saturday 16th February 2008

On a bright and sunny afternoon Maidenhead's pack, weakened by withdrawals and injuries, had a torrid afternoon against a well drilled Harwell.

For the first 10 - 15 minutes or so the Maidenhead forwards were at least on a par with their opposite numbers and could have been 3 - 0 up if a penalty in front of the posts had been successful. However Harwell then gradually ground their way into the Maidenhead 22 and stayed there until a good break out ended with a high tackle by a Harwell player in front of their own posts which Rob Wilkins converted to give Maidenhead an unlikely lead of 3 - 0. It wasn't long before a good move by the Harwell backs, simply passing the ball along the line, resulted in a try in the corner which was converted to put Maidenhead behind by 7 points to 3.

Then an excellent run by Ed 'no neck' Poulding from fullback showed that the Harwell defence could be penetrated. By now though the Harwell pack were getting on top and pressure on the Maidenhead 22 resulted in a penalty pushing the score out to 10 - 3, followed soon after by Maidenhead leaving a gaping hole in their backline defence which Harwell happily ran through to score under the posts. Then, despite some good kicking out of defence by Anthony 'Ging' Lane, Harwell put together another simple backs move and scored another try which wasn't converted to leave the half-time score at 22 - 3 to Harwell.

It all looked very ominous for the second half and so it turned out. Despite the fact that Maidenhead's only real threats had come when they ran the ball back at Harwell the lack of possession and mistakes had them dragged into a forward battle which they clearly weren't going to win. A penalty early in the second half got them back to 22 - 6 but that was soon cancelled out by a Harwell maul that drove over the line near the posts and a score of 29 - 6. Then very much against the run of play there was a period of Maidenhead pressure when quick tap penalties and a number of pick and drives nearly forced a score. The rest of the match saw relentless pressure from Harwell who really had their tales up in direct contrast to Maidenhead whose tails were very much between their legs. The last 10 minutes saw three more tries by Harwell who deservedly ran out winners by 48 points to 6.

Oh dear! Extra training for the next two weeks and a full side out for the next league match against Grove at home. Support welcome, ko at 2.30pm.

Man of the Match: Ed 'no neck' Poulding & Mike 'barrel' Anthony

Written By David 'the Pencil' Anthony