Bracknell Stags 21 - Maidenhead II 27

Given the performances that have been provided by the Stags Squads this season, you may have felt that a visit to Lily Hill Park by Maidenhead was well within the capabilities of the team to come away with a win and you would be right but you cannot just turn up and get a W and that is the trap that the squad themselves fell into. With the first loss of the season being inflicted upon the Stags it must serve as a purpose and focus the mind for the next game that will be a top of the table clash in two weeks time against Oxford Harlequins.

To be fair and with all due respect to the lads who put the effort in till the end, Maidenhead deserved the win as they showed a lot of team cohesion and played intelligent and physical rugby for the entire game, ala Bracknell all season except yesterday, although Bracknell did provide them a late scare, it was just too late.

Conditions where not the best as we now come into that difficult, wet, dark, dreary stage of the season. Conditions can be a great leveler and sometimes it is who deals with those conditions best will win out but at the same time you have to stick to your game plan and actually play for 80 mins and not 20. Maidenhead started the livelier and the big physical pack created some very quick ball for their back line who where themselves no minnows and ran hard and defended well all day. The first try of the game came from some hard drives into the Bracknell half and a quick thinking chip over the top caught the Bracknell back line cold and the bounce was kind to the follow up Maids runner who went in unopposed under the post.

What seems to be a pattern of late, this sparked Bracknell into life and they started to play some rugby themselves, although on most occasions a few passes not going to hand or poor pass selection being made or indeed the Maids defence just doing a good job prevented any real results for the Stags. Within the next ten minutes Bracknell again found themselves under pressure inside their own half and again due to some slack defending Maidenhead scored another try through a move down the blind side that pulled them even further away and at this stage it was evident that this was going to be a tough game.

Bracknell to their credit did dig deep and kept pounding away at the Maidenhead defence and were rewarded with a try themselves which was well worked and deserved at that stage if only for the tenacity….

It has to be said that Bracknell were showing a number of forced changes to the previous weeks side, however that cannot be used as an excuse. The half time talk was frank and honest as always and it was pleasing to hear the players themselves take responsibility and to recognize the issues. They just had to work on ball retention and get more tempo and accuracy in to the game, easier said than done.

The second half was more of the same although this time Bracknell did raise their game slightly but so did Maidenhead. Some positional changes were made and this seemed to reignite the side. Simon Bayliss was an immediate threat out on the wing and proved to inspire his mates who started to make big inroads into the Maids half which resulted in a couple of very well work tries for Daniel Ap Dafydd (man of match) and Simon Bayliss. In fact the score where brought back to within 3 points at 21-24 with about 4 minutes left and belief was starting to come back to the Stags and had it not been for a unbelievable forward pass call by the ref which stop a cert try and a very good cover tackle on Simon Bayliss late in the game the score may well have been different but again credit to Maidenhead they kept their cool and were awarded a late penalty themselves which ended the winning streak for the Stags with a 21-27 score line.

In summary, I am pleased for the heart shown by the team to secure a losing bonus point and who knows that may be critical at the end of the season and actually the Maidenhead Coach acknowledged the spirit. I am not so pleased at the lack of focus for the first 60 minutes and the ability to keep hold of the ball and to present it in a style that will allow us to play the way we want. Training this week will be tough…it needs to be…. as the WIN train is moving and we need to be on it!!!!!

Thank you to the supporters who came to watch in the miserable conditions.

Bracknell: 1. Gareth Staples 2. Simon Brambley 3. Stuart Laye 4. James Wright 5. Ryan Noakes 6. Ben Pilgrim 7. Tom Field 8. Ricky Frost 9. Jaque Conway 10. Daniel Ap Dafydd (c) 11. Richard Brember 12. Andy Slade 13. Gavin Edgar 14. Ben Yates 15. George Elliott Subs: 16. Simon Bayliss 17. Mike Eastwell 18. Dan Ledger