Mobbs-Smith ready for another ‘ding-dong’ affair with Brighton
Maids will be looking to reverse the late anguish they suffered at the hands of rivals
Maidenhead are preparing for another ‘ding-dong’ clash against Brighton this weekend, where a win for the visitors would see them close in on their seventh-placed rivals.
Maids produced the performance of their season so far in Saturday’s 67-26 win over Tunbridge Wells, running in nine tries at Braywick Park in what head coach David Mobbs-Smith called an ‘amazing’ display.
The result moved them to within nine points of Brighton ahead of Saturday’s game on the south coast and, should they pick up bonus point wins in their remaining games – without Brighton collecting a bonus point – they’d dislodge Saturday’s rivals.
It’s a long shot, but Maids are finishing the season strongly, with Saturday’s victory their fifth straight win at Braywick Park and their most dazzling yet. Drew Prince (two), Alex Turton (two), Harry Wells, Dan Collins, Elio Mandozzi, Jamie Maddern and Greg Smith all touched down as Maids notched up 60 plus points for the first time this campaign.
Maids won’t want to be reminded of their last clash with Brighton when they led 35-22 with minutes to play only to lose 35-36 to the very last kick of the game. At the time, it felt like a sucker punch which might define their season, however, Maidenhead’s recovery since then, and the maturity they’ve shown in their improving home performances, has been nothing short of sensational.
Mobbs-Smith said: “It’s mathematically possible, but we’d need for them
not to pick up a bonus point in either of their two remaining games. That’s even if you assume that we’ll win our final two games. There’s a chance we could finish seventh, eighth or ninths depending on how our last two matches go.
“If it’s dry and bright on Saturday,
and we don’t have to play in too much mud or anything, that will help. But Brighton also like to play attacking rugby like us, and they score a lot of points.
“It probably won’t be too different a game to the one at our place. It will be a ding-dong battle with tries being scored all over the place.
“Then we have Bournemouth at our place, and I don’t know what frame of mind they’ll turn up in. They will either be relegated or mathematically relegated, so it might be their last hurrah. And then we’re supposed to play them in the cup the week afterwards.”
He added: “The ambition for this young tea, is to manage games in the way we have been doing lately. We managed the game so well on Saturday once we got the lead. We didn’t just carry on playing super attacking rugby. We took penalties and built on our lead.
“We squeezed them a little bit and restricted their opportunities. The score can sometimes hide that because it looks like we had a magical day.
“But when they had chances to get back into the game, we managed to find ways to hold them off. It will be very interesting to see if we can continue developing that game management in the rest of our games and cup games and then into next season.”
After Brighton, Maids round off their Regional 1 South Central campaign at home to a Bournemouth side who will almost certainly be relegated when they arrive at Braywick on April 6. They then enter the Papa John’s Cup Regional 1 Shield where they’ve been drawn in the same pool as Bournemouth, as well as Westcliff and Hertford. Maids reached the final of the Plate competition last season, losing to Macclesfield in the final at Worcester’s Sixways Stadium.