Maids nothing short of magnificent in Welsh win
Maidenhead were nothing short of magnificent in Saturday's ruthless 56-17 win over London Welsh, picking apart their opponents in the first half to establish a healthy lead before overwhelming them in the second to run out comfortable winners.
Blessed with pace in abundance and having worked on their strength and conditioning (S&C) throughout pre-season, Maids look like they clearly mean business this season, with forward Phil Wells insisting the players’ 'hard graft' had paved the way for this victory.
It's a win that moves them up to second in the fledgling Regional 1 South Central table, but the manner of it will also act as a shot across the bow of their league rivals. As head coach David Mobbs-Smith said last week, impressive performances and results change how a team is viewed. The result is also in marked contrast to last season's disappointing start to the campaign, which saw Maids win just one of their first seven league matches. This may still prove to be a flash in the pan of course, however, there's a confidence within the camp that the club has recruited well this summer and expectations are high going into next Saturday's away game with derby-rivals Bracknell.
Reflecting on the team's performance in front of a fired-up Braywick Park crowd, Wells said: “We’ve been putting in the effort in pre-season. We knew Welsh were a big club with a big following, they used to be in the Premiership, so we knew we’d be in for a tight game. But we put in the hard graft and have great belief in ourselves.
“We started early in June (before most other clubs) and with the signings we've made, we knew we were going to come out and fight in front of this crowd.
“We knew we had to stamp our authority on the match in front of this crowd. We mean business this season after starting off slowly last year. We didn't want to let that happen again.
“We've been doing a lot of work on our S&C and that's obviously paying dividends out here this afternoon. It's a fast pitch so we need to be out running from the start. Our set pieces is something we’ve had to work on, last year our lineouts were probably a bit weak, but we've had a few boys come in from a higher level and we’ve worked hard on our set piece, and today they couldn't really handle that.
“100 per cent we are (pushing for the title). The league has changed, and we feel we've got a real good chance and all the boys have the belief we can do it.”