Maidenhead Festival

Midweek update after a successful weekend at Maidenhead!

Keeping consistency with the squads, for what is now 5 weeks, including two festivals, has proved to be a good idea. The boys are developing faster, and understanding their roles in the team - even if keeping them focused for 5 hours on Sunday is definitely not easy! We will start to mix things up again once we are all back in training in a couple of weeks.

We scored 45 tries this weekend, and in both teams a large number of the squad finished well. But as I mentioned to a couple of individuals, its the assist and pass that matters more than who scores!

Reports for both squads below, but overall the key messages to the boys is:

Keep it Simple:
1. Make the tackle (not with your hands or arms, but your body)
2. Be aggressive at the breakdown and win the ruck
3. Get the ball wide.
If we do that then our team will enjoy their rugby and be successful.

Bracknell 1 - Fusiliers
Maidenhead 1 - lost 5-2
Newbury - won 6-1
Henley - won 3-0
Tring - won 4-0
Maidenhead 3 - won 12-0

The squad scored 27 tries across 5 games, with 9 of the 11 squad scoring - very impressive, and shows the power of the team.

The day started tough against Maidenhead 1, they fielded a very strong “mixed ability” team, and we were still rubbing sleep from our eyes before finding ourselves 3 scores down. With some shape we scored two very good tries, moving the ball wide and finding the space. Maidenhead hit back though and closed out the game.

We focused on three simple, messages to the team throughout the day:
1. Make the tackle
2. Be aggressive at the breakdown and win the ruck
3. Get the ball wide.

As the team remembered this, we started to show strong performances through the day. Next up were Newbury, we started putting pressure on from the kick off, forced mistakes, retained possession and scored 6 very good tries. This week we asked Charlie to play in a wider position, and he showed his strength scoring a hat trick, to match Tom.

Henley came next, being the only team to beat us last week, we were keen to put the record straight. A Three nil result driven by aggressive forward play to win possession, and then move the ball from Dylan to Theo and setting Tom and Tristan free to use the width of the pitch and score - simples!

Our fourth game was against a strong Tring side, but despite Jamie taking a nasty bang on the head, we proved too strong for them to put a third straight win on the scorecard. The day finished against Maidenhead 3, this was a little bizarre given the loss we suffered earlier, but we gave more game time across the squad in a very one sided game. Highlight for me was seeing Tom put Masen into space, who run more than half the length of the pitch to score the first of two tries in this game, and then following this up with a great attempt to put Aaron into the corner too.

Overall a very good day, we do have to watch our tackling, and make sure we do not get too high. The special mention goes to Tom. We have asked him to take a leadership role in the team, and he is thriving on it. Whilst I know he wants to score, he was able to put passes into a number of players and create tries too. The teamwork is getting better and better.

Bracknell 2 - Rifles
Won 2, Draw 2, Lost 1
17 tries scored

Coach Matt was keen for the Boys to start as they finished the previous week having seen the Zombies the first few games.

Game 1: Tring- The rifles Fired from the off with Owen the usual zig zag man making a brilliant curved run nearly the length of the field. After some more great work Sam scored, only for the opposition to reply with a score. Tring looked sure to score again put a Heroic last-ditch effort from Alfie to stop a certain try in the corner. The side regrouped and started to play some great rugby, Hitting the ball up the middle and spreading it wide through Harrison. From this point it was One-Way traffic with the boys scoring tries through five players to win 7-1. Key points from this game were how dangerous we can be if we attack with straight running and move the ball into wider areas.

Game 2: Hemel Hempstead- After starting strongly the and scoring from another ‘Bulldozing’ run from the ‘OX’ Summersell, we conceded through some soft defending. The Team struggled to match their intensity in the breakdown and force errors as they had the first game. All of a sudden the opposition were allowed more ball and the defence was creaking. HH scored again before Taylor showed a clean set of heals to level it up at half time. After the break HH scored a well worked try, but the Rifles dug in and started to clear out at the ruck through Dan, Theo and Harry getting ball the away from the contact area where Sam showed us that Straight line running is way faster than jinxing around. Another clear out at the ruck saw Kyle produce a show and go and force his way over for a try. Unfortunately with seconds remaining, HH scored to level it up at 4-4.
The key learning here was to tackle properly, the boys do this regularly with a bag, but all too often with arms out at game time

Game 3: Windsor- Yes Windsor!!! Run for the hills straight after we’ve given them the ball of course.
This was a difficult game to watch as for all the ball and good work we did in large sections of this game the team really lacked the confidence in them selves to play it. Windsor Scored after a great solo effort and we responded with some super rugby before Sam scored again. A try by the ‘Windsor’ scrum half(?) put them ahead and the Rifles focus and belief went and further scores followed before a few tries of our own were disallowed. Final Score 1-4.
Guys Your biggest strength is you Heart, bravery and playing in a team. You can beat anyone. This Windsor side weren’t great, just 9 individuals and unfortunately we beat ourselves.

Game 4: Abbey- A mixture of disappointment from the last game and the fact we’d beaten the same team 7 days earlier meant that boys didn’t start this one as well as they should have. A determined abbey started really well and scored a well worked try! 0-1 at half time the team gave an honest assessment of the game and started the second half far more determined. The Rifles started hitting the rucks harder and forced a penalty from Abbey which the boys looked to create a few phases by running hard then spread to the wings. However the Abbey failed to deal with the ‘OX’ who smashed through to score with 5 opposition players handing on. The Rifles continued to clear the areas out well and eventually every one was thrilled to see the ball with Sam who scored what would be the winning try in this encounter.

Game 5: Maidenhead- The Boys did well in this game which was quite hard to follow as official made some odd calls according to the Maidenhead coach. We went behind only for Sam to score and that stayed the same till half time. Maidenhead scored again for The Ox to score a brace through more determined running and excellent reading of the game. Unfortunately we conceded late on again to finish with another draw 3-3.

On the whole this was a good day at the pitch, ALL the boys played great rugby at times and it was great to be involved with. What I would stress is that there are some big age groups out there guys who really weren’t comfortable playing us at either of the tournaments. That is credit to everyone there on Sunday because ‘when’ we turn up everyone struggles against us! At the start of every game be excited be ready and play for each other! YOU Are a super butch of guys and can beat anyone. Mistakes happen and we learn and move on better players. Keep working hard and the improvements will continue to come. Well done all.