7/3 U16 As stunned in Maidenhead late comeback shock
March 10, 2010
Maidenhead U16 A 24 – Newbury U16 A 14
In this critical league clash, Newbury was sitting on a decent lead, up 14 to nothing with 20 minutes remaining. But perhaps ‘sitting’ was the operative word because Newbury failed to deliver a killer blow, then collapsed under a determined Maidenhead comeback.
Newbury began well, staying tight upfront, working phases at the breakdown and containing the Maidenhead backs in midfield. But both sides clearly sensed it would be a close game. Maidenhead dominated the scrum but Newbury controlled the breakdown and just had the edge at the lineout. Newbury showed confidence and chose the right times to run ball in the backs, doing so ambitiously and effectively. Illustrating how close the game was expected to be, after 10 minutes Newbury opted to go for goal at a penalty on the 10metre line, left of the posts and into the wind. A good if bold decision but unfortunately despite height and distance the attempt went just wide. But as the half developed and the home side put on pressure, pushing into Newbury’s 22, first blood went to the visitors on 25 minutes. Outnumbered in defence, Jonny Courtney anticipated Maid’s final pass perfectly, coming in on the jam and stretching high to snatch the interception before outpacing all chasers for an 80 metre score under the posts. With lungs burning, kicking duty passed to Joe Leadley, who converted safely. Newbury kept up the pressure upfront, thanks to efforts in securing and winning ball at the breakdown in particular by Will Eversfield, Tom Simm, Will Frome and Jonno Stancombe. And when ball came out quickly and cleanly, the backs showed variety, confident handling and some incisive running by Greg Heath. As the allotted 35 minutes passed, and more than 5 more minutes strangely ticked by, Newbury started to ease off and the home side clearly had the upper hand. But, no more score. Newbury was up 7 to nothing at the half.
Maidenhead came out all guns blazing after the break, putting the visitors on the back foot repeatedly and pressurising their line. But the defence held, even if a few rash decisions did start to emerge. Then Newbury struck again 10 minutes into the second half after pushing up to Maid’s 22 and winning a lineout. Newbury’s backs ran a move, Maid’s outside centre targeted opposite number Greg Heath and as Sam Gutteridge feinted the pass he stepped through the defence instead, before shrugging off a tackler to score. Jonny Courtney converted. Maidenhead 0 - Newbury 14. Surely by staying tight, kicking deep to pin Maids back in their half and taking low risk chances when they came, this lead would be hard to lose. The trouble is, Newbury didn’t seem to try those things and lost composure. Maid’s first try 5 minutes later was well worked, luring Newbury’s defence into all the intended traps as their 15 ran a nice line through the Blues’ red sea defence to applause from both teams’ supporters. The score was now 7 -14, with 20 scheduled minutes to go. But the visitors were far from deterred at this stage. A grubber by Jack Hibberd was chased, contested and recovered by Will Eversfield, setting up Gregg Heath and Jonny Courtney to combine well on the outside and push up to Maid’s 22. Maids won the ball but Newbury charged down a hurried clearance and hacked the spilled ball forward. Greg Heath raced the retreating fullback to the line but the defender got the luck of the bounce and grounded first. Nothing is certain but had Newbury scored then, the game surely would have been over. Instead Newbury started making errors, taking strange options, burying hard-fought-for ball in the maul for turnovers and conceding penalties galore. Maidenhead levelled the score with barely a couple of minutes to go and that set off the momentum. Massive Maidenhead pressure followed, with Newbury defending resolutely inside their 22 for several minutes, expecting the final whistle at any moment and surviving two ‘held-up’ decisions. Quite how the game went on so long is a mystery (we can only think the ref was mistakenly playing 40 minutes per half and adding ‘injury’ time on) but already into ‘unofficial injury time’ Maids’ pressure yielded their third try. This seemed to take all life out of Newbury and was compounded by losing a key forward to the sin bin for repeated team infringements. Maids capitalised on the pressure and man-advantage and snatched their bonus-point fourth. The conversion was wide. The final whistle blew. 24-14 was the score. Newbury was wondering “how did that happen?” and Maidenhead could hardly believe their achievement.
Simply, Newbury let it slip away – the contest was much closer than the score but the result reflects a magnificent Maidenhead surge late in the game and a collapse by Newbury at the end of an exceptionally long second half. This was a major loss for Newbury given that the match – and perhaps more – had been there for the taking. But if there ever was a game that shows the awesome power of self-belief, ambition, passion and determination, then this was it. And if the boys learn that lesson it will (yes, really) have been worth it. Now, how the team bounces back and performs in the remaining key matches, will be the true test.
Tries: Jonny Courtney, Sam Gutteridge. Conversions: Joe Leadley, Jonny Courtney
Squad: Alex Cima, Jonny Courtney, Will Eversfield, Harry Fisher, Will Frome, Sam Gutteridge, Greg Heath, Jack Hibberd, Ben Hicks, Alex Huntsman, Ean Kershaw, Tom Lauder, Joe Leadley, Tom Nield, George Read-Smith, Tom Simm, Tom Soanes, Jonathan Stancombe (capt)
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