Bracknell fall to a strong Maidenhead team on the 4G

Bracknell came up against a strong and testing Maidenhead A team who are clearly targeting a quick return to the top division. Affected by injuries, and unavailability’s right across the age group, and with the Bulls playing just down the A4 in a league game at Redingensians there was some shuffling of the personnel, and moving of positions to ensure we got a capable team out onto the impressive 4G pitch at Maidenhead. It has to say, that despite the result it was indeed a very capable team that put on a sterling performance.

In a strange reversal of the previous league game, this time the score was not what we would have preferred but the performance for the vast majority of the game was excellent with the organisation and commitment of the boys, quite outstanding.

With the starting plan going a little awry, Maidenhead came steaming out of the blocks and only some last ditch tackling by Josh J and Zach prevented Maidenhead opening the scoring before Bracknell had got their hands on the ball. The power of the home boys running was evident from the start and this was to continue throughout the game, but rather than sink back into their shells, the visitors got stuck into the task at hand and defended manfully, if sometimes desperately (but effectively) for much of the remainder of the game.

The breakdowns, with Alex and Lewis to the fore, were proving quite a contest, and from one turnover, quick ball enabled Oscar and Josh to create some space for Theo to make some good yardage down the right wing. Oakley – who was tackling extremely effectively – and Zach also had some probing runs on the left hand side of the pitch, but the home sides defending was just as efficient as Bracknell, and so whilst Maidenhead had more of the ball and territory, helped by their very strong scrum, the game remained scoreless until the middle third of the game.

Eventually though Maidenhead opened the scoring with a kick chase down the left after 18 mins, with their winger just about catching the ball before it bobbled over the dead-ball line. The conversion was added and the game resumed its punch and counter-punch momentum.

There were hopes that the boys would reach half time just a single score behind, but with some injuries disrupting even more the balance of the team, Maidenhead squeezed in two scores just before half-time to reach the break 19 points to the good. Whilst it was a deserved lead, the lateness of the second and third scores were a bit of a blow to the visitors.

Two more scores came just after half time, so in the space of 9 minutes either side of the break, Maidenhead scored 22 un-answered points. However, rather than let their heads drop, the boys led by Captain Lewis continued to knock down the attackers and kept taking the ball to the line in an attempt to break through.

The first half flow had been very disrupted by Maidenheads scrum, with several balls being lost against the head however, as is their way, by the end of the first half and for most of the second, the (very) hard work up front saw the scrum contest even out, enabling Bracknell to retain their own ball. Great work by all of the forwards but especially the front rowers, Charlie, Daniel, Seth, Callum, Kai and Kyle. Behind them, Jonty, Chris and Harry all had strong games, mostly defensively although Chris did manage a couple of muscular runs as well.

So with the ability to claw their way back – belatedly - into the game, the boys pulled a try back. A defensive scrum from Maidenhead enabled the back rowers Alex, Ed and Lewis to harry the Maidenhead backs into scrappy ball, and the resultant breakdown saw them turn it over in front of their posts. Josh shot the ball out left, along the line to Zach who powered his way toward the line. He was just about brought down short of the line, but the Bracknell reinforcements reached him first and as the ball came back, Tim saw an opportunity and dived over the line (and indeed over the ruck!) to score. Oscar added a very good conversion to bring the score to 29-7.

The last few minutes saw Bracknell running more ball in an attempt to claw back some of the game, but the tackle toll had sapped much energy from the boys, and with several boys having to be replaced and re-purposed, and few more gaps opened up and Maidenhead grabbed 2 more tries for a final score of 41-7.

So despite the result, were very proud of the effort the boys put in today, against a powerful and very well drilled Maidenhead outfit.