Maids recapture fighting spirit (02.10.04)

MAIDENHEAD had another dose of West Country forward-dominated rugby when they lost a hard fought match at Penryn on Saturday.
Penryn took an early ball off the head and a succession of pick and drives kept the visitors pinned in their own 22m, but in spite of tight Maids defence close to the scrum continual pressure on their line saw home No.6 Dovey crash over near the posts for Pascoe to convert.
Stuart Mackay and Johnny Hammond showed their superiority in the centre for Maids but lack of regular ball and faulty passing prevented a score.
Paul Jones was winning good lineout ball at the front and full-back Danny Martin’s incursion into the line should have led to a score.
The visitors suffered a knockout blow when Mark Ruddick, becoming increasingly dominant at fly-half had to go off with a recurrence of the injury which had kept him out for the last two weeks. Martin went to fly-half and Maids had the youngest pair of half-backs with scrum-half Gareth Edwards, both recent colts, struggling to deal with ball on the back foot and in a tricky wind.
Penryn were winning most of the ball and only brave tackling by the forwards kept out a succession of short penalties on the line, with Peter Windeyer making a superb tackle to save a certain try at this stage.
Hammond and Nisbet combined to make a good break-out which should have put Dave Knight over but he was stopped on the line. From the ensuing lineout, after a great catch by Jones, Allan Greene was driven over for an excellent try.
However Penryn were continuing to dominate the forward exchanges with their pick-and-drive tactics but against the run of play Cormac O’Byrne collected a loose ball in his own 22 and started a move carried on by Mackay, Hammond, Danny Walton and Mackay again, for Walton to score a superb try in the corner to give Maids a lead of 10-7.
The huge South African lock De Wet Booysen was having a good game for Maids but his storming run out of defence was spoilt by an offence on the ground to give Pascoe an easy penalty to level the scores at 10 points apiece.
Dave Johnson and Richard Craig came on for Greene and Sean Swartz, but although the set scrums looked more solid Maids continued to struggle to win the loose ball and found it difficult to kick themselves into the Penryn half.
The home side kicked themselves out of trouble and in spite of losing prop Wright, with a yellow card, managed to keep up their forward pressure.
The game was settled by a defensive lapse in the backs which allowed the home right wing to score a straightforward down-the-line try, superbly converted from the corner by Pascoe.
Maids’ backs continued to look dangerous on the few occasions they received the ball but sloppy passing prevented a score and only a wrong option by a Penryn forward, who should have passed with men over, prevented the hosts from going further ahead.
Pascoe completed the scoring with an easy penalty at the end for a final score of 20-10.
O’Byrne was rightly voted man of the match and continues to improve his game in the loose and set pieces.
Maidenhead are finding life tough in South West 1 but injuries are giving useful, if painful, experience to recent colts Martin, Edwards and Hammond.
Maids can take credit for their commitment to the tackling department and need a little slice of luck to turn things round.