Swaggering style returns as Sutton are scythed down
At times in Saturday's 61-24 win over Sutton & Epsom, Maidenhead appeared to be almost unplayable, scything through the visiting defence with an arrogance and swagger that hasn't been seen since the early weeks of the season.
Buoyed by their 24-10 win on the road at Bournemouth, a result that stopped the rot of defeats, Maids flew out of the traps against Sutton, leaving the visitors breathless and ragged within the space of just a few minutes.
It was 21-0 before they were able to draw breath and collect themselves and, while you sensed Maids were already well on their way to victory, you also knew they weren't quite done yet.
The continued to jink and weave their way through the Sutton backline, racking up 60 plus points for the first time this season, however, while the backs made the headlines on Saturday, director of rugby, Myke Parrott was equally impressed by the composure and patience demonstrated by the forward pack and their overall defensive shape.
They conceded four tries, but most of those were scored when the hosts had players in the sinbin. Sutton are obviously struggling for results this season, given their lowly league position, but they can't have been put to the sword in such a ruthless manner by many teams this season.
Dan Hostetler, Niall Crosley and Will Macaulay all touched down within the first 10 minutes, with Crosley running from deep to score under the posts. Sutton then managed to starve the home side of possession for a period, but they came roaring back just before the interval, Scott Prince scoring the first of his two tries before Alex Turton scored a try of the season contenders to make it 35-7 at the break. Jamie Maddern got in on the act just seconds after the restart, while Harry Wells, Jack Norris and Prince, again, all touched down to increase Maids' buffer. In previous matches, Parrott has been conscious that Maidenhead have 'left tries out on the park', however, there was no such complacency in Saturday's clinical display.
“We play some good rugby, eh?” he said. “I was really pleased with how the boys applied themselves today, we’ve talked a lot in the last couple of weeks about line breaks and finishing off line breaks and making the right choices.
“Mobbsy and I are passionate about attack and scoring good tries. I was really pleased with the quality of try we scored and really pleased with the result. You look across that backline and they’re all so dangerous. They’ve got different assets, Harry Wells is a very rangey, gliding kind of player, Niall Crosley hits the line, Alex Turton’s footwork is brilliant and then you’ve got Jamie Maddern at full back who is absolutely rapid as well. When you can give those boys a platform as we did today, the scrum and lineout went well, then we know more often than not we’re going to score more points than the opposition.
“If we can get our own ball, like we did today, then the backs will do the rest.”
They were eye catching with the ball in hand, but the pack also deserve praise according to Parrott for the way they nullified Sutton's powerful forwards.
Parrott added: “I think we nullified some of their areas of strength well and I thought we did a good job, a lot of the time, at nullifying our lineout. Because when they get a catch and drive, they’re dangerous so fair play to them for that. Luckily by the time they got that working properly we were too far ahead for it to make a difference. In defence we were very patient, we didn’t give away too many silly penalties, and the yellow cards we picked up were also questionable.
“I think the try just after halftime was very important. It was almost straight from the restart. Jamie Maddern returns to score and that makes it 42-7.
“We had expected them to come out with some fire in their bellies, but it dampened it right down and we played some really good stuff.”
Next week, Maids will face a very different, and potentially stiffer test when they host derby rivals Bracknell at Braywick
Park. Bracknell have often had the edge in this fixture in previous seasons, but Parrott said: “Let’s hope that’s not the case next week.
“It's a big derby game and hopefully we’ll have another big win.”