Tunbridge Wells trounced
Maids players produce ‘performance of the season’ to hammer league rivals 67-26
Maidenhead executed their game plan and preparations to the letter in Saturday’s 67-26 win over Tunbridge
Wells, running in nine tries in a performance head coach David MobbsSmith felt was their best of the season by some distance.
Maids were at their scintillating best in attack while also being resolute in defence as they held off Tunbridge’s best attempts to force their way back into contention in the second half.
The match began like a basketball game with the sides exchanging tries and scores, however, Maids seized momentum either side of half-time to make it 31-14 just before the interval before coming back out and very quickly extending their advantage by another seven points.
Tunbridge Wells are fourth in the Regional 1 South Central table and one of the most consistent teams this season, but they were blown away by the pace and guile of Maidenhead’s attack. Man-of-the-match Drew Prince ran in two tries and created another for Harry Wells, while Alex Turton also sprinted away to touch down a further two scores. Elio Mandozzi, Jamie Maddern, Greg Smith and Dan Collins also got their names on the scoresheet. Having soaked up plenty of pressure from the visitors inside their own 22, Maids broke away to score three times in the space of five minutes in the second half and they led 67-14 before conceding two late tries to make the scoreline more palatable for Tunbridge Wells.
Reflecting on their best display of the season, Mobbs-Smith said: “From the start we played some amazing
stuff. The game was 31-14 at half-time and with around five minutes to play it was 67-14 before they scored two late tries.
“With the players they had we thought it would be tough, but that shows how well the boys played. So many of them put their hands up and played their match of the season.
“We were able to execute all the things we spoke about during the week. Those things all worked, and we were able to put them under pressure. We were able to do pretty much everything we’d practised on the Tuesday and Thursday.
“Just before half-time we scored to
get us to 31, so, we scored just before half-time and took that momentum into the break. Then, when we kicked off the second half we scored again and getting those scores either side of halftime made it a 38-14 game.
“But, even at that stage they had some moments of pressure, and we were able to hold out. Their comeback didn’t materialise because of our defence in that 10-minute period. We were excellent in that spell; we didn’t get any yellow cards and then we literally went and scored three tries in three minutes and the game was gone.
“Drew Prince got man of the match. He had an amazing game on the wing.
He got two tries and made a magnificent assist for a third try which was all him and he popped the ball up for Harry Wells to score.”
It is still mathematically possible for Maids to catch Brighton and leapfrog them for seventh place this season. However, to do that they’d have to beat them and claim a bonus point on Saturday and then pick up another five points at home to second bottom Bournemouth on the final day of the season.
They’d also have to hope Brighton don’t pick up a single point from their final matches. It remains a long shot, but for Maids to be comfortably in eighth place heading into their final matches says a lot about their improved form since the end of
November. After playing
Bournemouth on April 6, they then welcome the south coast side back to Braywick Park for the first of their Regional 1 Shield pool matches on Saturday, April 13. They also face Westcliff and Hertford in those pool matches.
“We’ve won five games in a row at home now,” added Mobbs-Smith. “And we had that narrow loss to Brighton before that which we were winning 3522 heading into the final minutes. But, from the beginning of December, we’ve won all our home games.
“On the road we’ve been in games, and we’ve been competitive, but we’ve only picked up one away win all season at Marlborough.
“We’ve given up leads in many close away games, but fingers crossed that’s going to change this weekend at Brighton.”