Barnes storming (26.02.05)

AFTER their early season thrashing at home, Maidenhead went to Clifton looking for revenge and aiming to extend the recent run of wins which has taken them to fourth in the table.
In an entertaining game where both sides used their backs as their main weapons, in spite of the visitors’ marked territorial advantage, the Clifton backs won the day through long passes taken at speed and good support play which gave them four tries against two scored by Maidenhead.
Maids started brightly, but wasted hard-won territory and good work by Booysen and Jones in the lineout by dropping the ball and passing badly in the backs.
Home fly-half Barnes began a virtuoso performance by kicking a simple penalty and then proceeded to dominate the play with long touch-finders under pressure and deft chips in attack which kept the home side on the front foot.
Unfortunately, the normally dangerous Maids backs had an off-day and breaks by MacKay and Hammond frequently foundered through knock-ons and bad ball retention in contact situations.
Conversely, the home backs, despite having less territorial advantage, ran hard and straight and exposed the frail Maids tackling in midfield.
Clifton exploited a gap in the centre when, with subsequent quick passing, winger McQuade scored in the corner.
Rob Hawkins replied with a penalty but another missed tackle in midfield allowed the home backs to score again, and Barnes converted.
Robin Bryant came on for Will Lowden who pulled a muscle and, after good forward pressure, Maids scored a good try from a rolling maul which was touched down by Piers Morgan after a short penalty.
Hawkins converted to bring Maids back into contention.
Barnes and Hawkins swopped penalties and, for a period immediately after half-time, Maids were in complete control with long runs by MacKay, Mueller and Nesbit all but producing tries.
However, an isolated counter-attack after continuing Maids pressure gave Barnes the chance to drop a good goal with his left foot and then repeat the process with his right foot to knock the stuffing out of the Maids fightback.
The Maids scrum, with Green, Craig and Johnston forming a solid front row, often pushed the home forwards back and Mueller, Booysen and Morgan were lively in the loose, but after several gallops in midfield the final pass always went astray.
Dangerman Greer on the wing received only one pass all afternoon, but Pete Nesbit raised hopes of a try with several good runs down the touchline.
A rare Clifton counter-attack gave skipper Butcher a chance to steamroller over for a try, converted by Barnes, to put the home team out of reach with a lead of 31-13.
Clifton increased their lead with a converted try from a rolling maul, but Maids had the last word with a try by Mueller after a controlled rolling maul.
Hawkins converted the score to make the final result a more respectable 38-20.
Gareth Edwards came on for Ben Ayres at the end and O’Byrne replaced Greene, who had been having a good game, but struggled when he pulled a muscle.
It was a pity that, with so much territorial advantage in which the Maids pack produced enough good ball to have won the game, the Maids backs dropped so much ball and were exposed in defence by the strong running home backs aided by the sleight-of-hand distribution of fly-half Barnes.