Marlow up to fifth with Thatcham win
Greenslade-Jones' side are victorious at Playing Fields
Marlow RFC head coach Rory Greenslade-Jones has taken plenty of encouragement from Saturday’s 37-17 victory over Thatcham in the Southern Counties North Division, with the side moving into fifth place in the league table.
At the Henwick Worthy Playing Fields, Marlow had the early advantage before a competitive fightback put the home side in a 17-16 lead half-time. After some stern words at the break however, Greenslade-Jones’ men started playing more for each other and the combinations proved highly effective.
They were forced into numerous changes before kick-off, with 10 players absent for Marlow due to injuries and illness. So, with these detriments considered, the head coach said this was a great result for his side.
“It was really good to go down there and pick up a bonus-point win with all things taken into consideration,” said Greenslade-Jones.
“We had a fair bit of unavailability and players missing due to knocks and COVID, so we had to make quite a few changes to the lineup before the game.
“All due respect to Thatcham, they’ve also struggled in the last few games to field a strong team but on Saturday, I think they were back to the XV they will use for the rest of the season.
“We went into a 16-3 lead pretty early but at half-time, we were losing 17-16. After some harsh words at the break, we revisited our processes and in the second half we managed to put together phases together numerous times and scored some really good tries.
“There were some outstanding performances in the game. Especially from Seb Rivett – in the second row – he has really performed well over the last couple of games. James Branch – our number eight – was man-of-the-match. He scored a couple of tries, one from a fantastic break down the wing when he dummied the full-back and scored underneath the posts.
“Our young half-back, Andre Raubenheimer – I think he’s up to 68 points already this season. He’s so meticulous in his goal-kicking, so a mention to him as well. Finally, Harvey Hendry who has been out since the beginning of the season – he was outstanding in outside centre. He really put a performance in worthy of getting the shirt this week.”
‘Three key factors’ will determine whether Marlow can emulate their success against Aylesbury this weekend according to Greenslade-Jones, the game to be played on home turf at Riverwoods Drive.
“Our defence has got to be solid – we can’t afford to miss numerous amounts of tackles. Our discipline has got to be very good – we should not give away silly penalties. And, our set piece has got to be strong,” added the head coach.
“If we can get those three key factors right then there is no reason why we won’t beat them. We have a good history with them at home, and we usually come out on top in this local derby.”