A VERY mediocre performance was good enough to secure a 27-5 win over improving Clevedon at Braywick on Saturday, and lift Maidenhead Rugby Club up to fourth place in South West 1.
After the match, Maidenhead coach Simon Edwards conceded that everything had not gone exactly to plan, but fell short of admitting to a poor showing.
He said: “I was quite pleased with parts of the performance. Things we did get right were the scrummaging. They (Clevedon) thought they were going to push us around, but I felt it was pretty even.
“The other thing we targeted was their kicking, and I thought their kicking was woeful. They gave away a lot of possession in good attacking positions.
“So the plus side is we countered their strengths.
“But we didn’t play to ours. I was frustrated. I knew exactly what was wrong and there was nothing I could do about it.
“They were playing a damage limitation game and we didn’t play phase rugby like I told them to.
“We didn’t suck enough of them in to break them down.”
He was also less than impressed with the way his players had allowed last week’s superb win in Oxford to affect their attitude to this week’s game, saying: “It was a classic case of ‘after the Lord Mayor’s show’.”
However, quickly returning to the positives, he added: “The game was hard-fought, but we got the two points and now we’re fourth in the table.
“It was a game we just needed to get a result out of. It was our game in hand and we won it.
“We never looked like losing. And the last try was fantastic. It was a good way to finish.”
He was also keen to put his side’s performance into context, claiming Clevedon were one of the league’s form sides.
He said: “In the previous six games I think they’d won five (actually only their last three). They have beaten Cheltenham and Penryn, who we lost to, and they only lost by three points at Clifton. They also beat Weston-super-Mare on Sunday in the Somerset Cup.
“You have to take these things into account.
“You also have to take into consideration that we were missing Allan Greene, Will Lowden, had a rib injury, Mark Mueller had a neck problem and Malcolm Eddington was only half fit.
“Put all these things in and I would have taken the two points.
“But we put 27 points on them, and if it had gone on another five minutes that could have been 50.”
Not that Clevedon provided much evidence of their recent surge in form on Saturday, when they only managed a single score.
Looking to the future, Edwards said: “I feel we’re very close to putting some points on someone. We’re playing quite conservatively at the moment, but when I get 20 points on the board I might start looking at other areas of our play.”
Not that he expects to do that tomorrow (Saturday) at Keynsham (kick-off 2.15pm), despite the fact the Bristol-based side are still pointless, and rooted to the foot of the table.
He said: “It’s a classic banana skin. They hadn’t won a single game all season until Sunday, when they beat Bristol Harlequins in the Somerset Cup.
“All of a sudden they have that winning feeling. They have something else to talk about, and that’s not good for us.
“Keynsham is never an easy place to get a result. Nobody has whacked them and I’m expecting a huge game.
“We have to be favourites but if we’re not on top of our game we’ll get beaten.
“I just want to go in there, get two points and get out. I don’t care how good a game it is.”