23th January 2010


High Wycombe 0 - 33 Maidenhead
(league fixture)
 

This truly was a game of two halves. In the first half the High Wycombe pack gave Maidenhead a torrid time in the set scrums, winning a number of put-ins against the head and pushing the Maidenhead pack backwards with ease. It all stemmed from the front row and as a result Maidenhead were not able to establish any decent field position for any length of time. This was a pity because when the Maidenhead backs ran the ball they looked a lot more dangerous that the High Wycombe backs and with only a very limited amount of good ball the score at half time of 7 – 0 to Maidenhead was a fair reflection of the play. The score came inside the first 20 minutes when Piers Morgan bulldozed over for a try under the posts and Rob Wilkins converted. A bit later a good break by Rich Parsley resulted in a penalty to Maidenhead in a very kickable position which went begging.

Then with about 5 minutes to go to half-time the High Wycombe prop who was giving the front row and Tony Rawlings in particular such a hard time went off with a leg injury. He was persuaded to come back on because High Wycombe had no front row cover and would therefore have had to concede the match. This made all the difference to the second half when their scrum was nothing like as effective as it had been it the first half.

The second half opened with a clever solo try by scrum-half Dave Hunston from a quick tap penalty. This was then almost immediately followed by a simple try - line-out, catch to Piers Morgan going round the front of the resulting maul, no opposition, touches down, - presto, 19 – 0 to Maidenhead. Game over? Pretty well.

After about 20 minutes a High Wycombe player was yellow carded and decided he had had enough so went home. Mike Anthony went over after a period of sustained pressure and because Maidenhead were now getting good ball to their backs it was only a question of how many points. Only seven as it turned out as in the last minute Tony Rawlings went over under the posts for a try which he himself converted with a drop-kick. Given that the regular Maidenhead kicker had missed two conversions and two penalties perhaps he should be given more kicks at goal……….or maybe not!

Final score 33 – 0 to Maidenhead. A deserved win.

Written by David ‘The Pencil’ Anthony.

 
(Match statistics)